Sketch The Spynotebook Book Club

Originally uploaded by Scrappy Rocks!

i usually keep my geeky software finds to myself (mostly because i don’t think most of you all would be interested), but this is one that i think a lot of you might actually like and use. i came across this nifty photo editor called picnik today. this thing makes picasa look old skool — and i’m a big fan of picasa for photo organization and minor editing.

here’s what makes picnik rock:

1. it’s online, so it’s available from any computer with an internet connection and for multiple os platforms (windows, mac, linux)
2. it’s surprisingly fast for an online editor
3. it’s free (unless you want the premium service which is $24.95/year)
4. it can pull pictures not only from your computer but also directly from your online photo albums on flickr, picasa web albums, photobucket, facebook, myspace, freewebs, or webshots
5. it has a ton of built-in editing features and special effects (want to add a lomo effect? super color saturation? penciled in and matted like it’s on display in a museum? yeah, no problem. it even lets you pick your colors for the matting.)
6. you can save your newly created picture back to your computer, email to someone, print it out, OR you can send it BACK to your online photo albums (you have the option to save it as a new file or overwrite your existing uploaded picture, too.) OR directly to the printing service QOOP. (spynotebook book club mugs & t-shirts anyone?)
7. the best part? you can turn your pictures (even the ones you didn’t edit in picnik) into a flickr slide show that you can embed in your blog or web page

yeah, this thing is awesome. test it out and let me know what you think!

UGH…. and this is why i continue to hate DRM. from the FAQ section of the digital library website:

Why can’t I use my iPod with this service?
Our titles use DRM protection technology from Microsoft Corporation. Unfortunately the iPod and Mac do not currently support DRM-protected Windows Media Audio (WMA) files.
OverDrive, along with hundreds of online digital media providers, is hopeful that Apple and Microsoft can reach an agreement that would enable support for Microsoft-based DRM-protected materials on the iPod and Mac.

REALLY? you are seriously going to push a product that can’t run on the most widely used mp3 player in the world? i can understand not having it available for every operating system, but really? REALLY? not even available for the ipod?
*facepalm*

i came across this article in the paper about how the PINES system in georgia has started digital downloads for audiobooks. FINALLY!
so you can “check out” three books at a time — have your library card # handy and a computer running windows. (which means you’ll have to tell me and chip how it works because we don’t have a single machine running windows in our house anymore… well, unless you count parallels or vmware.)
anyway, happy summer listening!