Akkana Peck is a freelance software developer and writer who has been working with open source software for nearly 20 years. She has worked for a diverse collection of companies including Netscape, Silicon Graphics, Sun Technologies, Hewlett Packard, and Apple, and has written imaging software ranging from GIMP plug-ins, to cartography, to scientific visualization. Akkana is a longtime member of the GIMP community and enjoys giving GIMP courses and presentations, as well as filling up her hard drive with digital images. She lives in San Jose, California with her husband and a motley assortment of old computers. You can find more of her musings at ShallowSky.com .