MakeMKV beta keys
MakeMKV offers regular beta keys that usually last about a month if you want to try out the latest builds. You can find the updated beta keys here; or using this script.
MakeMKV offers regular beta keys that usually last about a month if you want to try out the latest builds. You can find the updated beta keys here; or using this script.
Are you losing the heads of those images you’re generating in stable diffusion?


Try adding these keywords to your prompt:
Links:
Content warning: Some of the links have some moderately NSFW pictures. There is no outright nudity, but it does deal with generating rather busty images. This article should be fine, but be aware following the links.
While this guide is translated from a Japanese source and uses the Waifu/Danbooru model to generate more anime-looking models, it works really well for generating ultra-realistic Victorian pictures using stable diffusion’s standard 1.5 model. Here’s some I made using his prompt with just 30 minutes of experimenting:














Fair warning, the original author is trying to generate more…busty women that look better as anime characters under the Waifu model. I won’t comment on his original purpose, but I thought this was an interesting description of how a ‘prompt engineer’ moved from an idea to generating a stable diffusion prompt.
First he started with a good description of what he wanted:
I want a VICTORIAN GIRL in a style of OIL PAINTING
Eye and Face are important in art so she must have PERFECT FACE, SEXY FACE and her eye have DETAILED PUPILS
I want she to have LARGE BREAST, TONED ABS and THICK THIGH.
She must look FEMININE doing EVOCATIVE POSE, SMIRK and FULL BODY wearing NIGHT GOWN
The output must be INTRICATE, HIGH DETAIL, SHARP
And in the style of {I’m not give out the artist names to avoid trouble. Apologize.}
This lead him to generate the following prompt. Note his use of parenthesize () to add emphasis, and terms inside square brackets [] to minimize the direction.
Prompt :
VICTORIAN GIRL,FEMININE,((PERFECT FACE)),((SEXY FACE)),((DETAILED PUPILS)).(ARTIST),ARTIST,ARTIST,(ARTIST). OIL PAINTING. (((LARGE BREAST)),((TONED ABS)),(THICK THIGH).EVOCATIVE POSE, SMIRK,LOOK AT VIEWER, ((BLOUSE)).(INTRICATE),(HIGH DETAIL),SHARP
Unfortunately, you don’t need to experiment for long to realize stable diffusion needs a lot of help with anatomy. It often generates nightmare fuel images that that have multiple heads, messed up arms, hands with too many fingers, eyes with terrifying pupils (or no pupils), too many limbs – well, you get the idea. So you need to make sure those things don’t show up by banning them via setting the negative prompts (again, not commenting on original purpose):
Negative Prompt :
((nipple)), ((((ugly)))), (((duplicate))), ((morbid)), ((mutilated)), (((tranny))), (((trans))), (((transsexual))), (hermaphrodite), [out of frame], extra fingers, mutated hands, ((poorly drawn hands)), ((poorly drawn face)), (((mutation))), (((deformed))), ((ugly)), blurry, ((bad anatomy)), (((bad proportions))), ((extra limbs)), cloned face, (((disfigured))). (((more than 2 nipples))). [[[adult]]], out of frame, ugly, extra limbs, (bad anatomy), gross proportions, (malformed limbs), ((missing arms)), ((missing legs)), (((extra arms))), (((extra legs))), mutated hands, (fused fingers), (too many fingers), (((long neck)))
Finally, he made these settings to the stable diffusion settings. Note you want to keep the aspect ratio in a portrait-like format (768 tall x 512 wide). Going taller can result in multiple heads, going wider can result in more than one person in the scene.
Restore Face: ON
Steps: 42
Sampler: DDIM
CFG scale: 10
Height: 768
Width: 512
Links:
Now that you have Stable Diffusion 1.5 installed on your local system, have learned how to make cool generative prompts, it might be time to take the next step of trying different latent models.
There is more than one model out there for stable diffusion, and they can generate vastly different images:

Check out this article to learn how to install and use different popular models you can use with stable diffusion:









Now that you have stable diffusion on your system, how do you start taking advantage of it?
One way is to try some sample prompts to start with. Techspot has some good ones (halfway through the article) to whet your appetite.
You can get inspiration by looking at good examples on free public prompt marketplaces.
Then you might want to learn how to fix some common problems.
When you’re really ready to dive in, this article from Metaverse gives you a list of excellent getting started guides to help get you from beginner to proficient in generating your own awesome art.





The key to it all is learning the syntax, parameters, and art of crafting AI prompts. It’s as much art as it is science. It’s complex enough that there are everything from beginner examples, free guides, tools to help, all the way to paid marketplaces.
Learning gotten a lot better in the last 6 months since people started learning how to use AI generated prompts last year.
To install Stable Diffusion 1.5 (released Oct 20, 2022) locally, I found this video was really excellent – except for a few points:
You might also want to read through this older stable diffusion 1.4 install guide, but he uses model checkpoints which haven’t been updated since version 1.4.
Stable Diffusion 2.0 seems to have been a step backwards in capabilities and quality. Many people went back to v1.5 for their business.
The difficulty in 2.0 was in part caused by:
The second part would have been fine, but the filter was quite inclusive and has removed substantial amount of good-quality data. 2.1 promised to bring the good data back.
If you’re interested in trying Stable Diffusion 2.1, use this tutorial to installing and use 2.1 models in AUTOMATIC1111 GUI, so you can make your judgement by using it.
You might also try this tutorial by TingTing
Links:
Use archive.today to get past paywalls via this script page.
You can do this yourself via this method:
https://archive.is/<target url without http>
example: https://archive.is/fortune.com/2023/01/03/tech-layoffs-2022-pandemic-dotcom-bubble/
Another method is to use Archive Buttons:
HowToGeek has a wonderful little introduction on how to start write your first Stable Diffusion prompts.
Update 02-2023: Here’s 10 really amazing resources to help you to generate really great prompts and art.
They start with some simple AI image generation and move on to more and more complex examples that includes a brief introduction to some key parameters, changing and including broader image sources, and then generating various famous artistic styles.




They finish out the intro with some links to help you learn more:
Links:
Nobody seems to want to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Now late 2022, only about 15% of users have upgraded or bought machines with Windows 11 – despite it being out for well over a year. Even the Steam Hardware Survey indicates a 28% install rate on some of the newest/highest end gaming systems.
There’s a whole host of gripes about Windows 11. There have been performance and compatibility issues that are not present on Windows 10. Others greatly dislike the UI changes (this is my big gripe). Still others mention being told their hardware is incompatible. However, you may, like many others, find yourself FORCED to upgrade to Windows 11 whether you want to or not. Windows has a nasty habit of pushing such upgrades without asking.
If you want to make sure you don’t get a Windows 11 upgrade but still keep getting Windows 10 updates, you can try this trick:
First, navigate to Windows Update, then hit Pause Updates on that page.
Run
services.msc, find the Windows Update service and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), right click on them and pick Stop.Next, browse to
C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\, and delete the contents.That is it. The two services will eventually restart on their own, and next time it checks for updates it will only get Windows 10 updates.
Edit – If you want an extra layer of assurance, run the tool InControl from GRC, this free utility changes a few Microsoft sanctioned registry keys to specify what version and feature update of Windows you want to remain on. There are also details on those registry keys for those that would rather manually configure it themselves: https://www.grc.com/incontrol.htm
Links: