[solardev]

IMO there's a place in the world for easy, low-cost niche services that save you time.

I use things like remove.bg (a background remover) or VectorMagic (for raster vectorization) frequently, even though I have decades of experience in Adobe. Sometimes it's just easier/good enough to go through a dedicated tool that repackages some common workflow into a simpler wizard rather than have to DIY everything.

I tried to set up my own stable diffusion workflow the other day, using the ready-built GUI app Draw Things. Several hours of work and many gigabytes later, I managed to create several iterations of low-quality images that reminded me of early AI a few years ago. None of it approached the ease of use or output quality of, say, Midjourney, much less the state of the art these days (whatever it may be).

Maybe I could've tinkered with it for a few more days/weeks, but why? It's just an occasional toy hobby use for me, not something I want to get a degree in just to understand.

My main gripe with these services is their pricing model. I don't want to subscribe to something I might only use a few times a year. Wish I could just plop down like $10-$20 for a bucket of tokens that I can use-as-I-go. But that's not very sustainable for their business, I guess.