Spiff up your photos with flauntR.com

This year seems to be the year of web apps. You can find almost any kind of software that will run from the Internet in your web browser, instead of having to install it on your computer. Image editing is no exception to this, and it’s getting better all the time.

Adobe Photoshop has been the preeminent tool for editing photos, but it is very expensive and there is a steep learning curve. Over the last year or two, many web-based image editing programs have emerged that are very useful, and even Adobe is thinking about doing this with Photoshop. Newcomers like flauntR.com are among a wave of “web 2.0″ web based applications that replace those you once had to install on your computer to use. There are many reasons these web 2.0 apps are the way to go: the program is always kept up to date without requiring any action on your part, it’s available to you anywhere you have an internet connection, and there is usually a free option. In the cases where it’s not free, there is usually a pay-for-use arrangement which is better than having to pay the full purchase price, and you are never locked into any long contract.

flauntR.com offers many of the most commonly used features in any professional image editing software, but is designed to be useful to everyone with very little learning curve. It does require a user account, but that is free so all it costs you is your time.

There are many other players out there but another one I would recommend as an option is Wiredness.com. Whatever your choice, either of these web apps will give you some powerful image editing tools, while saving you time and money. Considering the pace at which companies are moving their applications to the web, it’s only going to get better.

Search Google with SearchMash.com

Want to see what Google is thinking of for future search features? Just check out www.searchmash.com/flash. This is an experimental search engine run by Google, which I assume is sort of a test bed for new features. Anyway, it provides all the same search results you’d get on Google.com, but with some extra features not available on Google’s main search engine. Video search is nicely integrated, as is wikipedia results. Also, there are no ads or sponsored links.

There is also an older version of Searchmash.com that works quite well too which you might be interested to try. It’s just www.searchmash.com.

San Diego Fires

Well, everyone knows about the fires around San Diego. After being evacuated from Monday afternoon to Tuesday, we have been back home and things are settling down. It’s been quite the experience to say the least.

Here’s a few photos >

My Birthday at the Miramar Air Show

As always, the Miramar Air Show takes place on the weekend of my birthday so it’s always something I enjoy doing. This year, for the first time in decades, the Blue Angels did not perform. This year we had the Air Force Thunderbirds, and they put on a great show.

See some pictures from the event >