I found a solution to my GIMP software issues late last night. An update of the Mac OS meant that the BIMP batch resize plugin was b0Rked. I use BIMP for the majority of my work.
Oh dear.
It seems that the Mac OS has outgrown the rather primitive BIMP software. I’m loathe to fork out for a monthly Adobe PS subscription.
Pixillion seems like a half decent compromise. It ships with a lifetime licence for £25. I remember back in the day singing up for lifetime membership of a video rental shop. That business model went well.
Still, a one off £25 is preferable to the monthly £20 that Adobe skim you for. Life’s too short to try and run the Prompt commands within GIMP that will customise batch image editing.
I gave Pixillion a brief road test early on Sunday with the Wiv Town and Rebels snaps from yesterday. The software is robust. I just need to learn a little more about the settings.
I also managed to resolve the recent Facebook nonsense of late.
tl;dr I got locked out with 2FA.
Fuck knows what I did with the 2FA generator and codes. I use Google Authenticator for 2FA across all other sites. I wouldn’t be so foolish as to delete the FB account, would I?
WOULD I?
Highly unlikely. But I’m stuck in a Facebook loop, asking for 2FA with no other option to validate my login.
I was logged in on two machines, and my phone. A school network logged me out of my personal machine.
No worries. I only need Facebook for work these days.
But then my work MacBook also logged me out on Friday afternoon. I can’t manage my work pages over mobile.
I feared that sooner rather than later, I would be kicked out on mobile as well. Facebook Help is no help. In fact it’s shit.
The modern interweb has endless examples of other users stuck in Facebook purgatory. It’s not a pleasant place to be.
I need access to client pages as from Monday morning. The only option left was to set up a new Facebook account, and then get my work pages linked to this new account.
Apologies, friends and lovers, if I have spammed you with Facebook friend requests over the past 24 hours. Facebook doesn’t allow you to have page management of external sites unless you have some genuine friends.
I have few genuine friends, tbh…
And so a couple of tech issue resolved, time for a bicycle ride to release the tension.
Chapeau!
It was more like a midsummer ride at 10am than an autumn roll out. Even the cows in some of the Estuary Wilds fields were seeking shelter under trees.
The Raleigh electric clocked 47kmh going down Boundary Road. This meant nothing to some of the returning students a little further along who don’t seem to understand the concept of a dedicated bicycle lane.
John Holt was my ear worm throughout the ride. Bob Elms dropped Make It Through the Night earlier. I sang along to myself rather loudly for most of the 46km circuit around Abberton.
One of the villages had a house that was preparing for the festivities. Not Christmas, but Halloween. The front garden was being laid out with a Winter Wonderland light show, adapted for Halloween.
Nope, me neither.
I thought of riding around the Reservoir in reverse of the usual clockwise direction. My navigational skills are so piss poor that I would probably have ended up getting lost.
I had a bee in my bonnet - or rather a wasp in helmet.
BE GONE, you little fucker.
I tried to dictate a few random notes for later into my Apple Watch. It kept on locking me out and asking for the passcode. That ain’t’ gonna happen during a bicycle ride.
I looked this up later in the day. Apple admit
“Other issues that can impact sensor performance include wrist tattoos.”
Oh dear.
I suffered two major FUCK OFF closes passes from a couple of pricks within the space of two minutes.
Sunday drivers are the worse.
More pleasing was spotting the serene site of a field of detectorists going about their business. It looked like some form of organised dig. There must have been double figures for the detectorists out in the field.
I bolted on a Lidl BOOZE run for the return leg in Sunny Colch. Winter is approaching - in the calendar, if not the climate. Winter means drinking Porters.
I picked up six bottles, and still had change out of a tenner. The Raleigh panniers were perfect for the BOOZE run.
I stopped off at the University for a couple of hours. It was the opening game of the season for Rebels Men volleyball team.
I’ll watch any old live sport, me.
Stan was back on MC duties after another thrilling basketball game on Saturday. A Cambridge player launched a long serve straight into the net:
“Just like a fish, straight into the net, fella.”
Stan has all the best lines.
I fell victim to the cruel big screen lookalike competition. A balding picture of Einstein appeared. Five seconds later and the camera zoomed in on me.
I can take the balding comparisons, but bloody Einstein? I look nothing like him. Mr Bean might have made even me laugh.
Rebels won the game within three sets. It wasn’t as one sided as this suggests.
MOTD catching up, and online admin ate into Sunday evening,