BBC News | Premier League wins anti-piracy court order BBC News Kodi is free software, built by volunteers, that is designed to bring videos, music, games and photographs together in one easy-to-use application. Some shops sell set-top boxes and TV sticks known as Kodi boxes, preloaded with the software. The ... |
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Premier League wins anti-piracy court order - BBC News
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab on Tuesday announced it was rolling out a free version of its antivirus software across the globe, a product launch that comes amid mounting suspicion in the United States that the cyber firm is vulnerable to Russian government influence.
Kaspersky Free was immediately available in the United States, Canada, and several Asia Pacific countries and would launch in other regions in the coming months, Eugene Kaspersky, the company founder, wrote in a blog post. (bit.ly/2uXnsVQ)
Kaspersky said the free version was not intended to replace the paid versions of its antivirus software, describing it as offering "the bare essentials," such as email and web antivirus protection and automatic updates.
But the free software would benefit all of Kaspersky Lab's customers by improving machine learning across its products, he said.
The company has been working on Kaspersky Free for 18 months, a development phase that included pilot versions in several markets including Russia, Ukraine, China and Scandinavian countries.
Founded in 1997, Kaspersky Lab grew rapidly through the 2000s to become ow of the world's leading anti-virus software companies. (Graphic of Kaspersky's global reach tmsnrt.rs/2uWTQoV)
But the company has faced suspicion for years about its ties to Russia's Federal Security Service or FSB.
Concerns about the company have metastasized in the United States in recent years due to the deterioration in U.S.-Russia relations following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014 and later when U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia had hacked the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Moscow denies the hacking allegations, and Kaspersky has repeatedly denied it has any untoward relationship with any government, saying the accusations against it lack evidence.
Last month FBI agents visited the homes of Kaspersky employees as part of a counterintelligence probe, and the Trump administration took steps to remove the company from a list of approved vendors who sell technology products to federal government agencies.
There is also a bill in Congress that would explicitly prohibit the Department of Defense from using Kaspersky products.
Privately held Kaspersky said its U.S. revenue, most of which comes from selling anti-virus software to consumers and small businesses, slipped from $164 million in 2014 to about $156 million in 2016.
Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
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Russia's Kaspersky Lab launches free antivirus software globally - Reuters
Artweaver puts a wealth of virtual brushes into artists' hands.
Is it time to bid farewell to Microsoft Paint, a Windows staple since all the way back in version 1.0? According to a Microsoft page listing all the features to be removed from the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Paint is indeed going bye-bye.
Of course, this has yet to be officially confirmed by Microsoft, and there's always the possibility you'll be able to download the program separately.
If not, no worries: There are plenty of free alternatives to Paint, and most of them offer a lot more features. Let's take a look at some of the options.
If you liked doing actual painting with Microsoft Paint, you'll love Artweaver. This touchscreen-friendly Windows program serves up a wealth of realistic brushes, pens, papers and more, all designed to unlock your inner artist.
Although the free version is quite capable, you'll need to invest in Artweaver Plus (about $40, or 30/AU$50) if you need technical support or want to use the program for commercial purposes. Just doodling, though? You'll find Artweaver a fine tool.
GIMP supports layers -- a killer feature if you need them, and something Paint users never dreamed of.
The old-standby, old-favorite open-source image editor, GIMP hews much closer to Photoshop than it does to Paint, and as such the learning curve is much steeper. If you're willing to learn, this is definitely a major upgrade.
On the other hand, it's probably overkill for users just looking to draw cat pictures. Thankfully, the developers have created a handful of tutorials designed to walk you through various functions. And, hey, you can't have a conversation about free image-manipulation tools without mentioning GIMP. While I'm at it, Paint.NET is usually mentioned in the same breath; it's similarly sophisticated, similarly challenging for novices.
Do you use Paint mostly for simple image-editing? Consider switching to IrfanView, a fast and compact utility that's great for quick edits. With it you can rotate, flip and resize images; convert to grayscale, sharpen, fill backgrounds; and apply a variety of effects.
It's been my go-to app for years; I use it to tweak most of the images I share here on CNET. And it does have basic paint and text tools as well, so you can accomplish nearly everything here that you can in Paint -- and then some.
Built with illustrators and comics/manga artists in mind, Krita is an open-source paint program offering perks like a brush-stabilizer (to compensate for shaky hands), a wrap-around mode to produce seamless textures and patterns and a pop-up palette to keep useful tools close at hand.
Like a lot of the more advanced software in this roundup, Krita comes with a learning curve. Newbies will definitely want to check out the online documentation.
Krita gives budding artists and illustrators a pro-level set of tools.
Why bother downloading and installing software when you can work on the web? (Oh, right: working offline.) Assuming you're connected, check out Pixlr Editor, a browser-based image editor offering tools -- layers, filters, effects, etc. -- that rival both GIMP and Paint.NET.
Just one problem: The tools aren't labeled; you don't even get pop-up descriptors when you mouse over them. So unless you can identify, say, the smudge tool just by its icon, you may find Pixlr a little complicated.
Have you found a free Paint substitute you like better than any/all of these? Name it in the comments!
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5 free replacements for MS Paint - CNET
How not to agree to clean public toilets when you accept any online terms and conditions MercatorNet The same concerns apply when it comes to downloading free software and apps which can sometimes come bundled with other software or extensions, often referred to as Potentially Unwanted Programs. If people don't read the terms and conditions then ... |
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How not to agree to clean public toilets when you accept any online terms and conditions - MercatorNet
Mumbai: Schools and colleges have now begun to adopt free open source computer software for learning instead of paying huge amounts for licensing. St Marys School at Mazgaon is the first school to have adopted Linux open source Operating System (OS). This move has overthrown the monopoly of proprietary software like Microsoft, Adobe and Acrobat. The school has saved around Rs 2,000 of every student by adopting this free OS. Both the teachers and students have been acquainted to this new software as it is quite similar to the other software that they were initially using.
This school opted for this change because it lacked the funds needed for licensing and also due to the technological advantage. Fr Jude Fernandes, principal of the school, said, My school is an aided school where we charge just Rs 600 as computer fees for an entire year from every student. I could not burden my students to pay more fees just so that I could pay the licensing charges of these software, amounting to lakhs of rupees. This idea of installing this change was initiated by a voluntary group of teachers and professionals called Linux Users Group (ILUG) of Mumbai.
A senior member of the group said, Our education institutions have been teaching us Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Adobe Photoshop. Whereas, a text document, presentation or designing is what students need to learn. And that can be learnt on any software. We can learn on freely available software instead of paying huge sums for these products. Surprisingly, questions related to these products were also asked in Maharashtra State Board examinations.The member added, Recently, the state board issued a notification, stating that schools should use open source software.
The member added, Recently, the state board issued a notification, stating that schools should use open source software. Therefore, questions in computer papers have been shifted from Microsoft word to text document and Excel sheets to spreadsheets. These open source free software do not have a license fee and are easily available with low virus risks. Fernandes added, The recruitment companies want students who are well versed with these software so I think education institutions should adopt this change for the technological benefit.
The ILUG found out in a Right to Information (RTI) query that Ruia College had spent Rs 30 lakh in three years, Khalsa College spent Rs 8 lakh in one year and the civic body spent Rs 18 lakh on these proprietary software. The ILUG which can be approached at ilugmumbai@gmail.com aims to approach more schools and colleges to adopt this change and help students.
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Mumbai: School gives software firms run for their money. Here's how - Free Press Journal