News : Create any brush you can imagine | PixiEditor October Devlog

You can download this tool from the official website.

See this video tutorial on PixiEditor - the official youtube channel.

Krita 100K concept art and Textures for FREE . Gift 2 and Gift 3🎁🎁

... is from four months ago , but good to know ...

As I promised here you have a bonus gift for you. 3 files to create concept art thumbnails and 12 textures to improve your artworks if needed. Enjoy! If you enjoy this contents and are helping you to be a better artist, let me know in the comments.

News : Sketchfab sell is on FAB - Form W-8 for Non-US developers

About a week ago I tried to sell a gourd but instead of the classic Sketchfab page with a sale button I found a button to the fab website. Today it redirected me to fab and epicgames. I still haven't found a logic in the redirection mode... they are two separate entities... In any case, Sketchfab and PayPal will eat some good cents from what you sell, you lose a few dollars or euros. Let's see what happens with FAB.About a week ago I tried to sell a gourd but instead of the classic Sketchfab page with a sale button I found a button to the fab website. Today it redirected me to fab and epicgames. I still haven't found a logic in the redirection mode... they are two separate entities... In any case, Sketchfab and PayPal will eat some good cents from what you sell, you lose a few dollars or euros. Let's see what happens with FAB.

Start selling on Fab

Fab makes selling easy with intuitive onboarding and migration tools, and creator-friendly resources. Get started today and join the thousands of creators already selling on Fab.

... tax selection webpage.

In order to comply with US tax reporting we use a short online tax interview that will gather all necessary info required for your tax identity, generate a Form W-9 for US developers and Form W-8 for Non-US developers, and determine whether US tax withholding need to be applied to your payments. Verification can take 3-5 business days in some cases.

I ask the copilot about these type of selections and this is the result:

Choose how you would like to create your tax record

• Personal Tax Profile (Romania)
  Used for individual income like salaries, pensions, rent, or dividends. Register through ANAF's Virtual Private Space (SPV) to manage your tax obligations.
• Personal Tax Profile (EU)
  Each EU country has its own tax portal. For example, in Germany you register with the Finanzamt, in France via impots.gouv.fr, and in Italy through Agenzia delle Entrate. These portals allow you to declare income, view tax balances, and submit returns.
• Personal Tax Profile (US)
  U.S. citizens use the IRS system. You file Form 1040 annually to report income, claim deductions, and pay federal taxes. You can create an IRS account online to manage your tax records.
• Sole Proprietor Tax Profile (Romania – PFA)
  Register as a PFA at ONRC, declare your activity to ANAF, and submit the Single Tax Declaration. You pay income tax and social contributions.
• Sole Proprietor Tax Profile (EU)
  In most EU countries, sole proprietors register with local trade or tax offices. You’ll need a business ID, VAT number (if applicable), and must file income and social tax declarations.
• Sole Proprietor Tax Profile (US)
  No formal registration is needed unless you use a business name. You report business income on Form 1040 with Schedule C and pay self-employment tax via Schedule SE.
• Single Member LLC Tax Profile (US only)
  Register your LLC with a U.S. state, apply for an EIN from the IRS, and file taxes as a disregarded entity (Schedule C) or elect corporate tax status using Form 8832 or 2553.
• Business Tax Profile (Romania – SRL/SA)
  Register your company at ONRC, obtain a fiscal code (CUI), and declare it to ANAF. You’ll file regular tax returns and pay corporate or microenterprise tax.
• Business Tax Profile (EU)
  Businesses must register with national trade and tax authorities. You’ll need a VAT number, fiscal ID, and must comply with local accounting and tax filing rules.
• Business Tax Profile (US)
  Register your business with your state, get an EIN from the IRS, and file corporate taxes using Form 1120 (C-Corp) or Form 1065 (Partnership). You may also need to file payroll and sales tax returns.

News : Smallest 64-bit Operating System in the World! by Datastream

... another video from Datastream - the official youtube channel.

This 64-bit operating system is less than 1.44MB in size, as it is running entirely off of a Floppy disk. It is called MenuetOS.

News : new Runway Aleph features for video

New changes on the Runway website :

Runway Aleph is a state-of-the-art in-context video model, setting a new frontier for multi-task visual generation, with the ability to perform a wide range of edits on an input video such as adding, removing, and transforming objects, generating any angle of a scene, and modifying style and lighting, among many other tasks.

News : Nasa - Carbon dioxide (CO2) animations.

You can find some graphics about Carbon dioxide (CO2) - old data, on NASA website.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most prevalent greenhouse gas driving global climate change. However, its increase in the atmosphere would be even more rapid without land and ocean carbon sinks, which collectively absorb about half of human emissions every year. Advanced computer modeling techniques in NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office allow us to disentangle the influences of sources and sinks and to better understand where carbon is coming from and going to.

NOTE: Due to the lapse in federal government funding, NASA is not updating this website. We sincerely regret this inconvenience.

See this website.

News : Maintenance release: Godot 4.5.1

This new released was on 15 octomber 2025.

We saw the release of Godot 4.5 less than a month ago, and have already been absolutely overwhelmed with the positive reception. Since then, our team has been hard at work on the development phase of Godot 4.6 (and subsequently its first snapshot), and ensuring that any new regressions/bugs reported after the release of 4.5 are dealt with swiftly. The community has done an absolutely fantastic job at helping our team find and squash all of those aforementioned issues, and paved the way for us to deliver 4.5.1-stable for you today!

See more on the official blog.

News : This OS is less than 1KB in size by Datastream.

... see this video : Datastream - youtube channel:

News : Blockbench 5 new changes .

The new Blockbench 5 is a major update including a new user interface design, improved animation tools, new modelling tools.

This can automatically create a UV map and template for your model so that you can start painting directly on the model in 3D .

See the official website.

News : Game smarter, not harder with Snapdragon Elite Gaming

... graphics and design from Snapdragon - the official youtube channel .

News : How to retarget auto-rig pro rig to a MIXAMO animation

News : Windows PowerShell and more ...

PowerShell 2.0 is finally history: The version of the shell program introduced with Windows 7 will be removed from Windows 11 version 24H2 from August 2025 and from Windows Server 2025 from September 2025.

Windows PowerShell is a command-line shell and scripting environment developed by Microsoft, designed for system administration and automation tasks designed by Jeffrey Snover, Bruce Payette, James Truher (et al.) by DeveloperMicrosoft team, and first appearedNovember 14, 2006 .

The default blue now designe is known by any windows user.

PowerShell 7 is the latest major update to PowerShell, a cross-platform automation tool and configuration framework optimized for dealing with structured data (e.g., JSON, CSV, XML), REST APIs, and object models. PowerShell 7 runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS, making it a versatile tool for various environments. This comes with a black color.

Let's see, this script performs a system integrity check, including checks for Python installation, recent file modifications, and potential unauthorized changes.

# === SYSTEM INTEGRITY AUDIT ===

# Installed applications
Write-Host "Installed applications:"
$apps = Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*, HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* |
        Where-Object { $_.DisplayName } |
        Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, InstallDate |
        Sort-Object DisplayName
foreach ($a in $apps) {
    $name = $a.DisplayName
    $ver  = if ($a.DisplayVersion) { $a.DisplayVersion } else { "-" }
    $date = if ($a.InstallDate) { $a.InstallDate } else { "-" }
    Write-Host "$name | $ver | $date"
}

# DLLs modified recently
Write-Host "DLLs modified in the last 7 days:"
$dlls = Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Windows","C:\Program Files","C:\Program Files (x86)" -Recurse -Filter *.dll -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
        Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) }
foreach ($d in $dlls) {
    Write-Host "$($d.FullName) | $($d.LastWriteTime.ToString('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'))"
}

# SSH logs
Write-Host "SSH logs:"
if (Get-Service -Name sshd -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) {
    $events = Get-WinEvent -LogName "Microsoft-Windows-OpenSSH/Operational" -MaxEvents 20 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    foreach ($e in $events) {
        $t = $e.TimeCreated.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")
        $m = ($e.Message -replace "\r?\n",' ')
        Write-Host "$t | $m"
    }
} else {
    Write-Host "OpenSSH service is not active."
}

# System files modified recently
Write-Host "System files modified in the last 3 days:"
$sys = Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Windows" -Recurse -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
       Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddDays(-3) }
foreach ($f in $sys) {
    Write-Host "$($f.FullName) | $($f.LastWriteTime.ToString('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'))"
}

# Python check
Write-Host "Python check:"
$pythonPaths = @(Get-Command python -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Source)
if ($pythonPaths.Count -gt 0) {
    foreach ($p in $pythonPaths) { Write-Host "Path: $p" }
    try {
        $v = & $pythonPaths[0] --version 2>$null
        Write-Host "Version: $v"
    } catch { Write-Host "Error retrieving Python version." }
} else {
    Write-Host "Python not found."
}

# pip check
Write-Host "pip check:"
$pipPath = Get-Command pip -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Source
if ($pipPath) {
    Write-Host "Path: $pipPath"
    try {
        $pv = & $pipPath --version 2>$null
        Write-Host "Version: $pv"
    } catch { Write-Host "Error retrieving pip version." }
} else {
    Write-Host "pip not found."
}

# Alias check
Write-Host "Checking python.exe alias:"
$aliasPath = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\WindowsApps\python.exe"
if (Test-Path $aliasPath) {
    Write-Host "Alias exists: $aliasPath"
} else {
    Write-Host "Alias not found."

}

Write-Host "Audit completed."

News : SpaceX Starlink ...

Starlink is the world’s most advanced satellite internet constellation, beaming terabytes per second to the most remote parts of Earth. Made possible by the advent of reusable rocketry, Starlink marks the beginning of a new age of orbital technology.

See the official website.

News : KDE Gear is back ...

KDE Gear is back with a cool wave of apps for your summertime desktop!

Whether you need to brush up on your languages to visit exotic lands, plan your trips, keep up to date while on the move, meet up with friends and colleagues, create content from your holiday clips, or just chill as your quaint steam engine trundles up a picturesque peak, KDE Gear 🌞 25.08 has got you covered.

The news comes on 14 august 2025 from the official website.

KDE Gear - originally known as the KDE Applications Bundle, was first released on December 17, 2014

KDE Gear version 25.08 release include and provides powerful, user-friendly apps for everyday tasks:

• Itinerary: Travel planner that helps with tickets, delays, maps, and even health certificates.
• Dolphin: File manager with improved search and integration with Filelight for disk usage visualization.
• KOrganizer: Calendar and task manager with better navigation and tooltips.
• Kleopatra: Encryption and certificate manager with multi-window support.
• Neochat: Matrix-based chat app with polls and thread controls.
• Artikulate: Language pronunciation trainer, now compatible with Plasma 6.
• Angelfish: Web browser with customizable shortcuts and adblock toggle.

I don't use KDE very often and haven't in the past either. I prefer simpler and faster desktop environment solutions for my older hardware.

News : mesa 25.2.0-rc1 - new release.

Hello everyone,

I'm happy to announce the start of a new release cycle with the first release candidate, 25.2.0-rc1.

As always, if you find any issues please report them here: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/new

Any issue that should block the release of 25.2.0 final, thus adding more 25.2.0-rc* release candidates, must be added to this milestone: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/milestones/51

The next release candidate is expected in one week, on July 23rd.

Cheers, Eric

This mail is from the official mail list of mesa-dev.

News : ... mesa 25.2.0 major update.

The mesa 25.2.0 comes with one major update for open-source Linux graphics drivers. It includes new features for OpenGL, Vulkan, and OpenCL ...

See more on this email from Eric Engestrom

Hello everyone, I'm happy to announce a new feature release, 25.2.0! ...

News : Google Patents source

Google Patents is a free, intuitive tool from Google designed to search and browse patents and patent applications from around the globe. It pulls together information from major patent offices like the USPTO, EPO, and WIPO, among others, creating a centralized hub for patent data. Using Google’s robust search engine, users can locate patents by entering keywords, patent numbers, inventor names, or other specific terms. The platform provides in-depth access to patent documents, including detailed technical descriptions, legal claims, illustrations, and translated texts, making it a vital resource for inventors, researchers, and companies.

Its standout features include powerful search filters, automatic translations for patents in foreign languages, and a straightforward interface for exploring patent details. While it doesn’t handle patent filings, Google Patents is an essential resource for uncovering prior art, studying existing technologies, or diving into innovations

Today, I found this great sci-fi knife design of the Collapsing Blade by Joseph Varner on the google patents website:

Blender 3D : create winter sprites with RealSnow addon.

A simple method to create snow sprites. I imported an image with a fence, created a roof for each slat using a subdivided and bent plane to be able to put snow with the RealSnow addon. I used an array to create a matrix and used the RealSnow addon to add the snow. I just need to hide the fence, and as it looks from the render, I will have various sprites for the fence.

News : my first generator on perchance.org

My first generator on the official perchance.org.

Is very easy to use if you know javascript. I tested with two plugins and with canvas area. First is a random basic text generator and second one will generate image based on text prompt.

News : FOSDEM 2025 Talk: From Pixels to Procedures.

Graphite is a free, open source vector and raster graphics editor, available now in alpha. Get creative with a fully nondestructive editing workflow that combines layer-based compositing with node-based generative design.

The GitHub repo for this project can be found on the github repo - GraphiteEditor/Graphite.