Free Seamless Texture Pack

The fourth installment of Spiral Graphics Inc’s popular line of free seamless texture packs has been released. With the latest pack more than 150 textures have been added to the collection, bringing the total number of freely downloadable seamless textures to approximately 600. The new pack, which contains terrain textures of all types, can be found here.

The textures are available in resolution-independent procedural form (GTX), as well as pre-rendered JPEGs. GTX textures can be fully edited using the Genetica seamless texture editor. Genetica provides a flexible node-based approach to texture generation that will empower you to create realistic new materials in record time. A downloadable demo of Genetica is available here.

For artists without the full Genetica application, the free Genetica Viewer is provided as a quick and easy way to take advantage of the GTX-format textures. Using Genetica Viewer, numerous embedded effect maps can be rendered for the textures, including bump and specular maps. Genetica Viewer is available here.

Subversion alternative: FileHamster

FileHamster seems like a nice idea for artists who are scared of subversion. Basically as far as I can tell, it automatically tracks changes to a given file or folder and records the differences. Like a local file history! Of course, it doesnt make a backup off-site for you like subversion can, but its good if you edit things a lot and make mistakes and never backup!
It looks really easy to use so give it a try…and yes it is free!

FileHamster is a version tracking application for developers, graphic artists and other content creators that frequently modify existing files.

FileHamster provides real-time backup and archiving of your files while you work. It enables you to monitor specific files on your hard drive and automatically create incremental backups whenever those files are modified. It also enables you to store notes about the changes that have been made, allowing you to quickly locate a specific revision or provide a detailed account of the work you’ve done on a project.

It has many features, but is very easy to use and does not require any technical expertise – just point it to the directory or file you want to monitor/backup and it will do the rest.

Website: FileHamster

The big files problem

You probably have had this problem at least once:
The file you want to send is to large for email, msn file transfers is to slow, uploading it to yousendit or similar sites is just to slow.

The solution for this is: Http File Server (HFS)!

Http File Server (HFS) is an easy to use drag and drop file server for personal file sharing. It runs as a standalone executable and does not require any installation. The program is very easy to use, just drag a file into it to share it with the world. You can customize the port it is running on, specify the IP address and monitor connections from the tray icon. HFS presents the shared files on a simple HTML page, that includes the file name and size. With some HTML knowledge, you can completely customize the HTML template to meet your preference. HFS can also integrate into Windows Explorer, allowing you to easily share files from the right-click menu.

You can download it here!

CAPTCHA!

Ever wondered how to protect / hide your email from spammers?
Look no further! (This starts to sound like a Tell Sell add…)

You should try mailhide from  ReCAPTCHA.
What it does:

ReCAPTCHA Mailhide helps you protect your inbox by asking people to solve a reCAPTCHA before they can view your email address.
The reCAPTCHA can only be solved by humans, and this stops spammers from gaining access to your email address through automated programs.

I suggest you check it out, if your worried about getting annoying emails.

Good luck with your fight against spam.