Download Squad

Mozilla's Ubiquity dazzlingly cool preview release promises to make commands a great deal easier to remember and use by removing those annoying hyphens. With a totally updated parser -- unimaginatively referred to as "Parser 2" Ubiquity also promises support for a ton of new languages.

"[The old parser] was based on a lot of assumptions about English that are not necessarily true in other languages", explains the preview release announcement. Spaces between words, or noun-verb ordering are more flexible under the new parser, opening Ubiquity to a non-English speaking audience and getting rid of those picky little hyphens for Anglophones.

Unfortunately, that also means a great many commands you might be used to are currently incompatible. The new version greeted me with a warning, notifying me that some commands -- known in Ubiquity parlance as "verbs" -- didn't load because of incompatibility with Parser 2. A quick look shows old verbs like "flip-page" and "desaturate-image" are in need of an upgrade.

Still, for fans of Ubiquity's slick hands-never-leave-the-keyboard workflow, this is an upgrade that's been a long time coming.

Meanwhile, the download program for Windows 7 RC closes on August 15th. You don't necessarily need to install the release candidate by that point, but you will need to download it by then.

It's not surprising that Microsoft is flipping the off switch soon. The company is on track to launch the retail version of Windows on October 22nd, and it's gong to be a lot easier to convince people to buy the software if they can't get it for free.

Sometimes developers hit the nail on the head when they name their applications. Make A Celebrity Odd is a pretty much perfect name for what the service does. The entire capability of this site is to take a celebrity's name, look up a headshot of them, and make it look weird by applying a mirror-type effect similar to one of the ones you might use in Photo Booth on a Mac.

The fun of it is that it seems to be able to consistently find head shot photos, and this is done through Microsoft's new Bing search engine's API. According to the site, this API offers a unique way to restrict photos found to just faces without showing shoulders, while Google can return faces but there is no ability to get specific about whether or not shoulders are shown. Interestingly, the site falls back to Google if not enough results are found on Bing, which is probably a wise choice. The example image on this post clearly must have come through the fallback Google search.

I wasn't sure what the copyright issues would be with a service like Make A Celebrity Odd, but given that everything on this site is done on the client-side via JavaScript, there may not be any. This is arguably no different than if I were to grab a photo of a celebrity online and put it in Photoshop, then manipulate it for my own entertainment.

Except, of course, that this is a web service that appears to display modified images that likely have copyrights on them.

So, what do you think? Aside from being a fun little time waster for a few minutes, is this site a legitimate use of search results? Do you think Make A Celebrity Odd is on shaky legal ground?

It leaked last week, but it didn't take long for Microsoft to follow up with a legitimate download for interested testers: the download page for Microsoft Security Essentials (formerly Moro) is now live.

You'll need to sign in with your Connect account or register for a new one to gain access to the download - for now. There will no doubt be hundreds of happy seeders sharing the Beta on torrent trackers later today.

Microsoft had originally slated only 75,000 spots for beta testers, though they have since announced that the number will be increased to accomodate demand. Interest will likely be high considering the generally positive reviews SE has generated since we first got our hands on it.

We've got a big gallery of screenshots of SE in action, including it detecting the trojan that I *ahem* intentionally left on my machine so I could test the program fully. I've been very happy so far with SE's level of protection and low impact on system performance.

Our readers are a pretty savvy bunch. You're up to speed on what software is and isn't worth downloading, and you're likely the "friend that knows about computers" to a lot of people. Wouldn't it be nice if some of those people started paying attention to our advice - and quit downloading things like...

1. A second (or third...or fourth) antivirus program. Despite what we tell them, some people think "more is always better" when it comes to PC protection. Inevitably, those people end up bringing their computers in for service saying "it just slowed right down" and - here's the kicker - "maybe it has a virus."

So wait...You installed Norton, AVG, Spyware Doctor, and Ad-Aware because you thought it would keep out all the badness and you still think it's a virus slowing down your machine? /facepalm

2. Just...one...more...toolbar (thank you J-Walk blog for the image). Apparently a lot of people love to search. So much, in fact, that they need dedicated toolbars for Google, Yahoo, Ask, Live, MyWebSearch, and a handful of others. They wind up with less browser real estate than an iPhone on their 22" LCD.

I launch their browser to download something, and it's like a punch in the face. Enough is enough, people. Use your browser's search box already.

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