Tightbytes as a site has gone so many directions, it must seem a bit schizophrenic to those randomly following it. And the current direction says nothing changes under the sun.

Recently, I had been having a new look at Blender 3D by the Blender Foundation, mostly because of Cycles, the new real-time render-review/game render engine. What I don’t know about this brilliant addition to Blender is nothing short of encyclopaedic. There are some incredible advancements that move so quickly you actually need dedication and drink jet-fuel to keep up. :-]

OSL, for example… it’s all about developing your own material nodes. Poser uses a node-based material system for materials, but you can’t develop your own. Blender truly is the cutting edge.

But, most recently, I’ve been porting my VBA-Excel based utility for managing Assets in Recovery (where I work) to Linux. Visual Basic in Linux? Oh yes… there are quite a few solutions to accomplish this. The one I’ve finally decided on is free, powerful, dynamic and constantly growing. It’s called: Gambas.