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BOURBONNAIS, Ill. The two Bears players representing the offense who met the media Wednesday at the start of camp are the two most important on the team this season.

They also werent even in the picture at this time last summer, and will be receiving more attention than they ever have in their football careers.

Jordan Howard and Mike Glennon will be two of the focal points all season long, and it starts with camp. John Fox reminded us Wednesday that no one was talking about Howard at this time last year. He was a fifth-round pick then and the third-string back. Glennon was in Tampa Bay as Jameis Winstons backup quarterback, and now hes the Day One starter something Ryan Pace reiterated multiple times for the first time in his NFL career.

I think its just what Ive dreamed of my whole life, to be a starting quarterback in the NFL and to enter the season as that guy, said Glennon. Its what Ive worked for; Ive prepared for it ever since I was a kid and all the way through college and into the pros, to get to this moment. So its going to be a great opportunity.

When practices get underway Thursday, Glennon will be under the microscope as an unknown commodity to Bears fans, and as someone who will have to fend off any conversation about No. 2 pick Mitch Trubisky.

Glennon knows that itll be natural for observers to compare his play in Bourbonnais to that of Trubisky, a feeling hes quite familiar with from his previous football stops.

Ive dealt with plenty of situations in my past where theres comparisons, dating back to when I was in college and Russell Wilson left, people were comparing us all the time, he said. When Jameis got to Tampa, I was dealing with a similar situation. I know thats going to happen but I dont really pay attention to it. Within the building, within the organization, were just trying to get better as a team. Hopefully Mitch improves, I improve. Competition makes us both better.

Pace would not get into any hypotheticals regarding a potential quarterback controversy.

Glennons here for a reason. We evaluated him over the years. Were very confident in him, he said. Glennons our starter and were confident with that.

Howard doesnt have to look over his shoulder, he needs to set his sights on continuing to be the go-to guy in the Bears offense.

I dont feel any extra pressure, said Howard, who worked on his speed this offseason and cut his body fat from 15 to 13 percent. Im just going to handle it the same way I did last year take it one game at a time, keep the same mindset. But the running game can definitely help out the quarterback, especially a quarterback thats new into the offense. But the running game can also help with the play-(action) pass. So I can help him do better.

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The price of free software? - Kokomo Perspective

Buildshop Launches Free Building and Remodeling Software Builder Magazine Software company Buildshop will now provide web and mobile apps that will allow homeowners to plan, budget, find, and connect with building professionals. In an article for sister site REMODELING, Symone Garvett reports on how the app which makes the ...

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Buildshop Launches Free Building and Remodeling Software - Builder Magazine

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 ... and more »

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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