Is nano banana qwen?

Actual title of a post on the StableDiffusion subreddit.

My Automatic1111 install croaked again. "Of course!" say the power users on the SD forums. "That's ancient. They stopped supporting it in mid-2024!"

That's how fast AI is moving. Yes, people are getting water-cooled Nvidia 5060 rigs set up (under an 16-core Ryzen or better). ComfyAI is old hat, with several other forks of Automatic1111, other independent run environments, and a front end for Comfy (which itself is basically a front end) that's got six different versions out there already.

Yeah, so I installed Comfy, even if it, too, is already old hat. But since another thing that is old hat is doing a clean install of Automatic1111 I just did that, too. Maybe this time I'll be smart and clone a backup (without the models, which is what takes up all the space).

It is old but I more or less know how to use it. It also is apparently much superior to ComfyUI for inpainting, and the thing I'm having fun with (I can't really call it workflow, since -- cue the Jurassic Park quote -- I'm not actually working on anything) is a process that is basically hyper-inpainting.

On a line with "assisted by software" towards one end and "created by the machine" on the other, I take some minor comfort that I'm leaning closer to the former than you might expect from the phrase "using AI." But after all, that's what editing is now over in book land; you are using AI tools, but they identify possible grammatical errors, and if you let them, make suggestions. You chose what to do in response. And "letting the AI change it" isn't the most common response.

This doesn't take away from the basic problems of AI. The morality (and possible legality) of the training data. The dangers of it, and not just misuse. And lurking under all of that, the black box nature of the thing. You are never quite in control and you never quite know what you are going to get, and for all that I could go on about serendipity (Rodin knocking a bust off the table and turning it into Man with a Broken Nose) and the ornery nature of organic tools (you never have total control over where that ink will go or how that paint will look)...

***

Revisited the cover concept again with a hybrid of Indiana Jones map and a bit of the Rivers of London look. That's basically a map, with the Beau Geste dotted line, the series running header as the dominant text element in swooping "adventure" font, and a compass rose with book number in the center.

Meanwhile writing is going slowly. I did a thousand words on the next scene yesterday. But even though it works, I'd prefer something with more conflict in it. So complete rewrite of that one.

I have a lot of Maytag Repairman time at work (we did an install yesterday; out of the building and something constructive to do, yay!) I can't concentrate well enough to write, so been reading up at (and on) Atomic Rockets.

Turns out Project Pluto wasn't even the height of insanity. Try Nuclear Salt Water rocket engine. That thing scared Scott Manley! And then there's what I can only describe as a nuclear solid rocket booster, for which one of the more interesting limitations is they have to make them really long and thin because there is no way of slowing down the China Syndrome melt-down which is heating up the lithium hydroxide reaction mass! 

I've also decided to not worry about lost opportunities for extra conflict and drama. The Athena Fox stories are more of a free-form exploration of a place, culture and time, where the solution of the mystery arises organically from the environment.

A plot which is intensively "Fetch Quest" oriented? Maybe The Tiki Stars is a good place to try that out.