BREAKING: EC response raises more questions for 'Gang of Six' browsers

Filed under: Analysis, Browsers

The European Commission responded earlier today to the petition submitted by the 'Gang of Six' web browsers seeking "any of a myriad of small changes" to alert users of the 7 browser choices not initially displayed on Microsoft's new European Browser Choice update dialog. In an email to CNet writer Stephen Shankland, EC spokeswoman Amelia Torres writes:

"The elements of the Choice Screen were published on the Internet and attention was drawn to them both through a press release and a notice in the EU's Official Journal, in all the languages of the Union. Two of the signatories made submissions in response to this market test, but did not raise the suggestions they advance now. Nor did any other market participant. The elements in question therefore remained unchanged when the final commitments were made binding on Microsoft by the Commission's decision of 16 December 2009."
(emphasis added)

Torres' response leaves little room to argue the merits of the 'Gang of Six' petition. I contacted Flock's Shawn Hardin for a response to Torres' remarks.

"Microsoft informed us on 12/16/09 that Flock had been selected for inclusion. This was the first time Flock received any official information about a decision that Flock would be participating in the program. Prior to this, Flock was never identified or invited as an "interested party" by the European Commission"

(emphasis added)

The EU comment period ends on December 16th when the agreement became binding -- Immediately following which, Microsoft announced the results of the convoluted ranking calculation which defined the 12 browsers to be included.

In contrast to Torres' response on behalf of the Commission, the Directorate General of Competition has responded by scheduling a meeting to discuss the petition with the signatories for Monday.

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BREAKING: EC response raises more questions for 'Gang of Six' browsers originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DLS (beta) review: free, portable Norton Power Eraser takes aim at malware

Filed under: Security, Symantec, Analysis

I spend a lot of time during the work week removing malware from customers' computers. So whenever I happen upon a new malware cleanup app, I make it a point to put it through the paces. Better tools make my job easier, after all.

Today I'm checking out Norton Power Eraser -- a free, portable malware cleanup tool from the folks at Symantec. I had tried to test earlier beta versions of NPE, but there was a rather major bug which prevented me from doing so. When I tried launching the program in safe mode with networking, it would fail just after startup because it was unable to communicate with Symantec's servers (NPE is a cloud-powered program).

Fortunately, Symantec has since fixed that issue. So with yet another infected system on my workbench, I fired up NPE and put it to work.

Continue reading DLS (beta) review: free, portable Norton Power Eraser takes aim at malware

DLS (beta) review: free, portable Norton Power Eraser takes aim at malware originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 13 May 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Six great resources for budding JavaScript coders

Filed under: Developer, Features, Lists

As a relative newcomer to the world of web development, it sometimes seems to me as though there is a gulf in the field: The "pros" versus the "wannabe developers". As if there's a tight-knit clique of developers, all well-versed in arcane stuff like advanced user scripts, HTML5, or Ruby on Rails -- and then there's the "rest of the world", composed of mere mortals just trying to hack something together that would somehow display and sort of work across multiple browsers.

So the question becomes: How do I bridge the gap? How can I become a decent, skilled JavaScript developer without spending a boatload of money?

After the fold you can see my take on that issue, consisting of one piece of advice and five resources which I find useful in this quest!

Continue reading Six great resources for budding JavaScript coders

Six great resources for budding JavaScript coders originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nine cool CD Art Display skins to showcase your music

Filed under: Design, Utilities, Lists

CD Art Display is a great little utility that puts the album art for the music you're listening to right on your desktop. It works with numerous players (iTunes, Foobar2000, Winamp, Helium, Windows Media Player, and more), and it shows you the album art for whatever track is currently playing with a beautiful skin. The art has to be in the album's folder, but if you don't already have it, CD Art Display can help you find it (it has a feature for automatically downloading covers).

Since it already interfaces with your player, CD Art Display also lets you switch to the next or previous track, pause/play, change the volume, and even rate the song and find and display its lyrics (right in the program, not in a pop-up browser window). It's pretty neat stuff!

CD Art Display isn't new; the last stable version (2.0.1) was released on September 8, 2009. The program is certainly not dead, though; CD Art Display 3.0 Beta was last updated on July 12, so it seems like development is definitely ongoing.

There are currently over 200 skins in the official gallery, so picking nine was tricky. However, I used the program's built-in browser to go through lots and lots of skins, installing and testing, until I found nine skins that I really liked. You can check them out after the jump!

Continue reading Nine cool CD Art Display skins to showcase your music

Nine cool CD Art Display skins to showcase your music originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hamster batch converts your video files for free

Filed under: Utilities, Video, Windows

Like many of the apps in this category, Hamster Free Video Converter utilizes the open source FFmpeg to handle video conversion. Unlike a lot of others, it's got a simple, easy-to-use interface which even the most casual users should be able to manage.

Just follow the tabs! Step 1: choose a video or multiple videos (Hamster does batch conversions, too!). Step 2: select your desired format (AVI, MPEG, WMV, FLV, MP3, or 3GP) or your mobile device. Built-in options include the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, as well as Blackberry, HTC, Archos, and Sony devices (among others). Step 3: convert your videos!

Don't like the default yellow theme? No problem. Simply open the settings menu, choose theme, and use the slider to select a tone that's more to your liking.

Hamster is an excellent free option if you're looking for a way to create mobile-friendly versions of your favorite videos. There's virtually no learning curve, so it's the perfect app to recommend to your friends who always seem to have shortcuts to crippled trial versions of crappy video converters on their desktops.

Hamster batch converts your video files for free originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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YouTube's shiny new HTML5 embed code is now live

Filed under: Video, Web services

Most of you have probably embedded a YouTube video at one time or another, even if it's just to share it on Facebook. Because copying and pasting is so easy, you might not have paid much attention to the embed code itself, though. Well, now's a good time to start looking, because YouTube is changing to a shorter, more compatible embed code, using the <iframe> tag.

What does that mean to the average YouTube user? Well, for one thing, the new code adapts to users' viewing environments, serving HTML5 or Flash videos depending on your browser and settings. It's also a big step toward showing embedded YouTube videos on mobile devices that don't have a dedicated YouTube player.

If you want to try out this enhanced embedding capability on your own site, you can just copy-paste this block of code, and fill in the video ID for the video you want to embed:

<iframe class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="385" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID" frameborder="0">
</iframe>

YouTube's shiny new HTML5 embed code is now live originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Helping My Mom Slide Technologically Backwards

Filed under: Humor, Retrocomputing

We leave you with a tale of a person's first computer, and her desire to get rid of the thing! - Ed.

Being in my late 20's, I am a member of the first generation of people that grew up with computers in pretty much all aspects of my life. I've witnessed and adapted to many new trends: Apple II's quirky ability to lock up when the 5 1/4" floppy got dusty, the introduction of a CD ROM drive to school computers and the widespread use of the Internet in homes and beyond. That makes me the first person many family members and older friends turn to for computer help.

About six years ago, I built a computer for my mom out of bargain computer parts found around the house and online. I was pretty thrilled as I didn't spend much on it and, while it was a little slow due to bargain RAM and processor selections, it ran pretty well. My mom had taken a few computer courses at the local community college and had gotten used to Windows 98 on their prehistoric computers, so I thought loading Windows 98 on the computer before giving it to her for her birthday would be the best choice. I was wrong. I became the 24-hour computer helpdesk and dial up Internet support.

Windows 98 played its role nicely, allowing her to get online and type up letters to print and mail (email was not her strong suit) and play solitaire, seeming to not need my computer help at the beginning. Also true to its role, however, Windows 98 started to throw blue screen exception errors occasionally which frightened my 50-something mother who thought this was indicative of having done something illegal and that the cops were on their way. She called me at work or late at night with a panic in her voice that told me she was sweating. I tried telling her that it was no big deal and that I'd look at it the next time I made the 60-mile trek to her house but that did little to soothe her jitters. She would start reading the numbers of the exception error off, expecting me to be able to write it down and immediately diagnose the problem.

To be fair, I wasn't as diligent as I should've been in researching the problem. I was in my early 20's and Mom's computer problems weren't high on my priority list. I did ask a few friends, who essentially confirmed my beliefs that perhaps something more robust than Windows 98 should be installed, and I offered to take the computer home one Christmas. My mom misunderstood my intention to take it home to fix it and instead thought I was taking it home for good. She sighed and grabbed my arm and said, "Oh my God, thank you. That thing was no end to stress for me". So my final part in providing computer help was taking the thing home. Although I do provide helpdesk services today, looking up phone numbers that she finds on her caller ID that she doesn't recognize and looking for ink ribbons for her Brother electric typewriter, which she now uses for writing holiday letters.

---

Back to the table of contents.

Helping My Mom Slide Technologically Backwards originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For just $2 you can now clarify your written sarcasm with the SarcMark -- HELL YEAH!

Filed under: Fun, Humor

I was going to write about this one on Friday but figured it was perfect fodder for a bad Monday morning. You can now, for the disgusting sum of $2, use the SarcMark. No longer will your slightly-questionable statements be misconstrued as sarcastic; no longer will you be forced to use a smiley when you write something contentious! The SarcMark is here, ladies and gentlemen, and it'll give you yet another reason to have your brain replaced with a big ball of cotton candy -- as if reality TV wasn't enough!

This is probably the most stupid invention ever. Not only does it cost $2, but you need to install it on both the sending and receiving computer. So that's $4. For a squiggly piece of punctuation. Hah.

I don't know about you, but I kind of like writing ambiguous sentences in emails. If I'm flirting with a girl, I can something like: 'I really like flat-chested girls'. If she sends an outrageous reply you can just claim you were being sarcastic. The SarcMark is bad news -- if you don't believe me, watch the introductory commercial after the break... :(

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Continue reading For just $2 you can now clarify your written sarcasm with the SarcMark -- HELL YEAH!

For just $2 you can now clarify your written sarcasm with the SarcMark -- HELL YEAH! originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CHOCKSEE visually warns you when your CapsLock key is activated

Filed under: Text, Utilities, Macintosh, Humor

If you happen to follow Mac indie software development, you've probably heard of Craig Hockenberry, the developer behind Twitterrific. Hockenberry is known for an online persona he sometimes takes on Twitter, where he types in all capitals. This persona is sometimes known as the CHOCKLOCK, and has resulted in people that are "in the know" referring to CapsLock as CHOCKLOCK.

All of that is background to explain why the utility I'm about to tell you about is called CHOCKSEE. CHOCKSEE is a Mac utility that will show you a pretty floating bezel on the screen if you happen to bump the CapsLock key, much like what you see on a Mac if you hit the Eject key.

And that's all that it does. Cute? Definitely. Useful? Kinda, sorta. I mean, there's already a visual indicator that your CapsLock key is on: ALL YOUR TEXT IS IN UPPERCASE LETTERS.

CHOCKSEE visually warns you when your CapsLock key is activated originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steam grows by 205% in 2009 -- and now has over 25 million users

Filed under: Games, Humor

Build it and they will come...

Build it and they will come!

Holy feces, folks, get this: people are paying for downloadable content.

Yes, stick this in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. MPAA/RIAA/ESA -- Valve's numero uno digital content distribution software, Steam, now has over 25 million active users. Those 25 million users managed a peak concurrency of 2.5 million games players, racking up more than 13 billion player minutes per month.

But of course, the proof is in the profits: there are now over 1,000 games available on Steam, distributed by over 100 developers and publishers -- big-boys and independents alike. All told, Steam sold 205% more units in 2009 than the previous year.

Gabe Newell, the president and uber fuhrer of Valve, was quick to add that Steam has grown immensely each and ever year of its existence. Steam's only been around for five years, but in that time there have been numerous improvements and additions to the range of products provided by Valve, resulting in a greater-than-100-percent increase in sales year-over-year since its creation.

Despite Steam's success, and I certainly wish it all the success in the world -- DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION WORKS DAMMIT -- I think we'd all like them to focus on getting Half Life 2: Episode 3 out of the door.

Any time now. This year. Please.

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Steam grows by 205% in 2009 -- and now has over 25 million users originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cc:Betty email threading tool axes cutesy name, becomes Threadbox

Filed under: E-mail, web 2.0, Humor

With the tagline 'work outside the inbox', and customary all-lower-case branding, Cc:Betty has just been relaunched and rebranded as Threadbox. Citing 'branding issues' and the need to 'reel in the cute', Threadbox is still the same software -- it just has a different name.

If you haven't heard of Cc:Betty, it's a very neat email organizer. As you probably guessed from the (old) name, you add Betty in the CC field when you write an email -- she, in a display of classic sexist misogyny, then keeps all your email threads shipshape and tidy. Where Cc:Betty really comes into its (her) own is group discussions: mailing lists, event organization, projects -- things like that.

The irony is, while you have to request an invite for Threadbox access, you can sign up to Cc:Betty right now. I presume accounts at Cc:Betty will be merged with Threadbox in due course.

There's an awful commercial for Threadbox after the break, but the demo video on the Cc:Betty website is better.

[via VentureBeat]

Continue reading Cc:Betty email threading tool axes cutesy name, becomes Threadbox

Cc:Betty email threading tool axes cutesy name, becomes Threadbox originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Top 10 Super Bowl tech ads

Filed under: Video, Humor, Retrocomputing

I'm about to shock you with my most blatant 're-newsing' to date. I pray, what with the spectacular Super Bowl tonight, that you can forgive me -- well, at least the Americans amongst you. OK, the Americans from the Deep South. BUT ANYWAY...

Computerworld has a gallery of the 10 best Super Bowl technology ads, from 1976 (Xerox!) to present day (Garmin). They're all classics that you've probably seen in some form or another on the Internet, but the best -- the most 'of its time' -- has to be Apple's 1984. Moving forward to 1997, there's Intel's hilariously awful Pentium MMX 'Play that funky music, white boy' ad (has to be seen to be believed), while the rest of the 90s are littered with the almost-corpses there's-a-pulse-if-you-shut-up-and-listen CompuServe, Lotus and Iomega.

At the end of the Computerworld article there's a great Atari ad from 1982 that apparently makes them 'cringe'. They obviously have no taste at all because it's my favorite -- and you can see it after the break.

Continue reading Top 10 Super Bowl tech ads

Top 10 Super Bowl tech ads originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Think you've mastered Linux? Prove it, with Suicide Linux

Filed under: Games, Linux, Humor

Linux gurus who pride themselves on their skills with the command line would finally have a way to prove it if one guy's wacky idea came to fruition. Yes, it's Suicide Linux, where any unrecognized command is parsed as "rm -rf /" ... that's Linux for "your hard drive's content go boom." Sorry, no helpful spelling correction in Bash, just boom. This concept popped up on Sam Hughes' qntm.org last year, and has been making the rounds of the web again this week.

Why would you ever want to play Suicide Linux? Well, it's certainly not practical, but it makes more sense as a game than as an actual operating system. See how many days you can make it without erasing all your files! Hell, I probably wouldn't even be able to survive Suicide Mac OS X for more than a week (sometimes I flub my Quicksilver commands when I'm tired, okay?!), so Suicide Linux sounds to me like a test invented by an overdramatic movie villain.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I couldn't find an actual download of a Suicide Linux distro, but it seems like it wouldn't be that difficult to create ... especially for someone who could use it.

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Think you've mastered Linux? Prove it, with Suicide Linux originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Make your friends think twice before they click with ShadyURL's NSFW-looking links

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web, Humor

There are dozens of URL shortener available on the web like tr.im, bit.ly, and goo.gl, to name just a few. They all take long URLs and squeeze them into fewer characters to make a link that is easier to share, tweet, or email to friends.

It's about using the smallest space possible: On Twitter or instant message status even a 60 character long URL can be too long. For example the URL http://www.downloadsquad.com/ contains 29 characters and can be shortened to http://tr.im/ORcH - 17 characters. But it doesn't always have to be about efficiency.

Why not have some fun with your links?

ShadyURL is a little bit different: "Don't just shorten your URL, make it suspicious and frightening," they say. Hey, why use a run-of-the-mill bit.ly link with some random letters when you can zap someone over to http://5z8.info/inject_now_l2k9y_snufffilms? That'll make your coworkers think twice before they click -- or possibly not, depending on what they're into.

Okay, maybe it's not the best service for transforming URLs prior to sending them to your boss but definitely an eye catcher on Facebook and other social websites. Go check it out and hit the "try again" button after submitting your link to get a freshly-vandalized link.

[Via Neatorama]

Make your friends think twice before they click with ShadyURL's NSFW-looking links originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How you know IE6 is dead: the funeral's already scheduled!

Filed under: News, Microsoft, Browsers, Humor

Internet Explorer Six, resident of the interwebs for over 8 years, died the morning of March 1, 2010 in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc.

So begins the obituary of once-beloved browser that overstayed its welcome on this mortal Web. We've known IE6 was in poor health for some time, but it hasn't exactly died swiftly and with dignity. In fact, I reported just days ago that it was still alive!

While IE6 still clings to corporate IT departments and giving web designers fits, one design firm has decided to send the old, crummy browser out in style, with a proper wake.

The IE6 Funeral will take place March 1st at the offices of Aten Design Group in Denver, Colorado. Why pick March 1st as IE6's date of death? That's when Google cuts off IE6 support in Google Docs and Google Sites, and starts phasing it out in other crucial products. On March 13th, YouTube will stop working in IE6, sadly taking away one of the main wastes of time for corporate employees who are still stuck with the browser.

Is it too early to celebrate, though? As I reported earlier this week, some companies want to ditch IE6, but can't, because it's the only thing that works with old industry-specific software they still rely on. Personally, I think IE6 had its glory days, but now I can't wait to dance on its grave. Too bad I can't make it to Denver next week!

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How you know IE6 is dead: the funeral's already scheduled! originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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8 reasons to love furries, and more, on Linkbait Generator

Filed under: Blogging, Humor

I'm going to file this one under "social commentary", actually. Linkbait Generator is a pretty interesting tool I found over at the always-interesting MakeUseOf. It does one thing, and does it quite well: generate titles for blog posts that will probably get clicks.

For some reason, people seem to be obsessed with lists. If you go to Digg's "Popular" page, you are sure to find at least one list (right now I see "10 Ways Women turn Men Off"). But it's more than just lists; there seems to be one simple formula that gets clicks. I think that's kind of sad, really, but it's true. Linkbait Generator lets you capitalize on that formula by generating titles (and ideas) for posts that are likely to get clicks.

If you already have something you'd like to write a post about, you can feed it in a textbox (not shown in the screenshot above), and get ideas. I put in "jogging" and got "The top 7 scariest videos of all time about jogging". I am positive that if I'd write a post like that, it would get tons of clicks. Sad, yet very useful for bloggers who rely on clicks for a living (or extra income).

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8 reasons to love furries, and more, on Linkbait Generator originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unhappy Hipsters is full of anti-hipster juice

Filed under: Fun, Humor

"His mother was right; asking girls to read his screenplay on the first date was a mistake."

That's the caption Unhappy Hipsters set for this image of an aging hipster reading some artsy book under a Kandinsky poster, with a plaid shirt loosely hanging in the background and colorful, thick-rimmed sunglasses resting fashionably on the all-white, sophisticated shelving unit next to him. The site (tumblog, actually) features numerous such images off catalogs, each carefully captioned. Some of the captions are almost as long as a short story.

Needless to say, I love it. I find the hipster culture fascinating. There's something about how it is commercial while trying so hard to appear indie and non-commercial ... I just went to an Urban Outfitters for the first time last week (we don't have them in Israel), and I was struck by how easily you can slide into this ready-made "indie" lifestyle, carefully crafted by the same guys who sell all the "normal" stuff for the "non-hipsters" (or "squares", to use Sixties slang).

Unhappy Hipsters beautifully captures the inner humor of the hipster wave and sub-culture, and how ridiculous it can often seem from the outside. I'm guessing it's written by hipsters, for hipsters, and self-irony is never a bad thing in my book.

[Via: 37signals]

Unhappy Hipsters is full of anti-hipster juice originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Torrent site sends condoms to MPAA in serious April Fools' message

Filed under: Fun, P2P, Humor

I'm sure you're sick of reading about April Fools' Day jokes, but this is one prank with a serious message. Russian Torrent site Vertor, tired of anti-piracy groups trying to shut them down, sent a most unusual package to six of its biggest opponents, including the MPAA. What was inside? Condoms!

They were Russian Vizit Overture flavored condoms (in mint, banana and strawberry!) with an attached note saying, "We wish your parents had used it." On Vertor's blog, they explain that this is part April-Fool, part real message. The message is "stop harassing our users, and basically cease to exist." I don't think it will accomplish anything, other than letting the MPAA, RIAA, IFPI, BREIN, BPI and BSA know that they don't have a lot of friends in the torrent community. Not exactly news, but pretty funny.

Vertor has posted the tracking numbers of the condom shipments online, as well, so curious fans can see when they're delivered.

[via TorrentFreak]

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Torrent site sends condoms to MPAA in serious April Fools' message originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Geocities-izer lets you browse your favorite website with 90s goggles

Filed under: Design, Fun, Time-Wasters, Humor, Retrocomputing

Ahhh, the good old days. When men were real men, and websites were horrific white-on-dayglo-yellow creations lovingly crafted in notepad, complete with animated GIFs of randomly dancing M&M's and poor MIDI versions of Oasis' Wonderwall on auto-play.

Miss those days? Do you? Come on, you can admit it... we're all friends here. Okay, you don't have to say anything -- I can see it in your eyes, and I have just the thing for you!

Enter the Geoceties-izer! This incredible service lets you feed it with any website, and spits out a complete copy of the site, exactly as it would have looked like had it been created in Geocities back in the happy 90's. You really have to try it -- the screenshot above does it absolutely no justice; I just didn't know where to begin! Should I zoom out and show the broken images and wide expanse of yellow? Should I zoom in on that dancing M&M?

And how can I convey the incredible emotional impact a poor MIDI rendition of Wonderwall can bestow upon an unsuspecting ear, right when it autoplays on page-load, amidst that sea of eye-searing yellow?

You really, really have to experience this. If you're using headphones, don't. Share it with your office-mates. Just click. You may not get the same Wonderwall-on-yellow background I got (on a second attempt I got Alanis and Bill Gates with devil's horns), but it is sure to please.

OMG, "Isn't it Ironic" in MIDI.

[Via: Woot blog]

Geocities-izer lets you browse your favorite website with 90s goggles originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New userscript lets you "Just Say No" to Facebook

Filed under: Internet, Humor

Facebook has become a major hot-button topic recently, what with the endless privacy issues and bug reports floating around and all, so you may be thinking about leaving the social network. Unfortunately, kicking the habit may not be so easily done.

Maybe you want to deactivate your account, and let it sit while you think things over. Maybe you're afraid of outright deleting your account out of fear that you may become an elusive Internet hermit. Maybe keeping the account active is the only way your Mom will get off your case about not calling home often enough. Or perhaps you just don't want to abandon all your friends, who don't even use email or chat services anymore because of Facebook dependency. Sure, you've tried explaining it to them, but they still don't understand why you would want to leave such a fantabulous, wonderfully free social network. It's the greatest thing since sliced bread -- don't you know?

Maybe you find yourself stuck in a loathsome, controlling relationship with Mark Zuckerberg, and you just can't force yourself away from his buggy social clutches. Maybe you feel like you need some help.

Sadly, Dr. Drew Pinsky doesn't take cases like this for cheap, but you can still get the help you need to kick the Facebook habit right in the face, once and for all -- and you can do it with a userscript.

The script, called No Facebook, can be installed in any browser running Greasemonkey/Greasekit or in Chrome as an extension. Basically, when you have the script enabled and try to visit Facebook, you get directed to a page with nothing but the friendly reminder pictured above.

Now, whether you've decided to deactivate, delete, or simply leave your account open, you can at least exercise some control over your junkie self. Just remember -- you're not alone.

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New userscript lets you "Just Say No" to Facebook originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 14 May 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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QuitFacebookDay lets you ... you guessed it!

Filed under: Fun, Social Software, Humor

QuitFacebookDay is a website with one, simple agenda: To get you to stop buying bottled water.

Well, actually no, but perhaps you can guess the agenda by the domain and the ten-foot-tall header.

What? Did I hear someone say "Drama Queen"?

Yes, I admit this is kind of dumb, but I really could not resist. Human beings are social creatures, so what better way to quit a social network than... socially?

The site is basically an all-out anti-Facebook rant. They explain in fairly simple terms why you should quit Facebook. The bottom line is that you don't have to quit all by yourself, and be a lonely maverick. You sign your name and add to the number of "committed Facebook quitters", and come May 31st, you all quit together.

At the time of this writing, there are 13,379 "committed quitters". Assuming they all really do quit, that would work out to approximately 0.0000334 percent of the entire Facebook user base! Way to go, guys!!!

No, but seriously though, I really think change is coming. Maybe not exactly via this bullhorn, but you guys just wait and see -- by 2012, we'll have another strong player in the social networking arena.

[I bet you can be 'the first to like this page' with that ShareThis button... -Ed]

QuitFacebookDay lets you ... you guessed it! originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 24 May 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's Quit Facebook Day, are you in or out?

Filed under: Internet, Social Software, Humor

It's May 31st, which makes it not only Memorial Day here in the States, but also the first officially unofficial Quit Facebook Day.

You may have noticed that Facebook has been getting a lot of attention from us recently, and it's really no surprise given the amount of public sentiment toward the social-networking site. About a week ago, one of those posts was about a movement to get users to leave the network in droves, spearheaded by the website QuitFacebookDay.com.

Well, it's time to ante up.

Earlier this month, a couple of our writers up and quit the network, setting their accounts on the path to peaceful rest. According to the counter on QuitFacebookDay.com, some 26,000 users have pledged to quit just like they did, making this Blue Monday a Facebook Blue Monday -- or so they hope. Considering the fact that Facebook has somewhere in the range of 400 million users, 26,000 just doesn't seem substantial enough to make Mark Zuckerberg shed a tear.

That being said, we're still curious. Are you quitting today?

View Poll

It's Quit Facebook Day, are you in or out? originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 31 May 2010 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google lets us wallpaper the Search page - I set mine to a Bing screenshot

Filed under: Internet, News, Google, Microsoft, Search, Humor

Last month, we had some fun with Google's explanation of their recent redesign of search results, but it looks like Google isn't quite done yet with not copying Bing.

In their quest to make their search engine sexier and more appealing to the fickle masses, Google's now begun to let users add a background image of their choosing to the main search landing page. Is this cool? Yes. Is it copying Bing? We'll let you decide, but note that the picture above is a screenshot of Bing's landing page uploaded to Picasa and set as my Google Search background image. Google's suggestion that it only looks vaguely familiar only makes it funnier. (Click image for full size.)

And that's where the militant commenters will start saying that it's not copying, since Google lets the users pick their own backgrounds, while Bing just force-feeds fake Feng Shui. As much as I'm tempted to agree with them, I end up remembering the kids in school who would copy your answer in a test, and then expand on it and make it even better than yours. You know the type.

Whether it's obvious copying or not isn't all that important anyway. It's actually a pretty nice little feature; you can choose any image you want so long as it's at least 800x600 in size, and you simply pick from whatever's sitting in your Picasa account. Then, whenever you hit up Google's landing page, the image fades into opacity in the background so it doesn't slow down your searching.

They're still rolling the feature out at the moment, and somewhat slowly at that, so you may not see the option to add a background image for a few days.

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Google lets us wallpaper the Search page - I set mine to a Bing screenshot originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hitler finds out about Opera 10.60

Filed under: Internet, Humor

When I started writing here, I never once thought I'd get to write a story about Hitler. I knew I'd get the chance to write about many different things, topics that really push the boundary on what constitutes 'a download' but... mein Führer... well, the Third Reich and its illustrious general has always remained just out of reach. Until now. Thanks to Der Untergang and the Hitler Meme, I can finally cross 'Hitler' off my to-do list.

Watch as Hitler, the tyrannical mastermind behind Chrome, laments the success of Opera 10.60. Marvel as Chrome is knocked from its Axis.

As far as über-geeky videos go, this is one of the best I've seen. It's fantastically well-observed -- and watch out for the 'BS' line, it's classic.

[Download Opera 10.60 now!]

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Hitler finds out about Opera 10.60 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook Stories lets you share your story about how Facebook isn't creepy or bent on world domination

Filed under: Social Software, Humor

Facebook has just launched a new feature-slash-PR-initiative called Facebook Stories, which lets you -- you guessed it! -- share your stories about Facebook. Judging by the categories, they're hoping users will share the positive, miraculous things Facebook has done for them.

Love, friendship, peace, communities and support groups are all on the list, but most of the Facebook stories in my social circle fall into categories like parties, stalking, binge drinking and wondering if your data is being sold to advertisers.

It's not that I endorse irresponsible behavior or think that Facebook should endorse it, but it's a huge stretch to recast Facebook as a massive force for good in the community. Granted, Facebook users did the world a favor by getting Betty White to host Saturday Night Live, and you occasionally see a criminal tracked down and caught on Facebook, but it's hardly some kind of sunshiney community social movement with a focus on puppy rescue.

Also, there's no real filtering of the stories, so a lot of them miss the intended point entirely. To see what I mean, click on the "celebrities" category and read all the love notes to Justin Bieber. This PR plan seems like it could backfire pretty quickly.

Facebook Stories lets you share your story about how Facebook isn't creepy or bent on world domination originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hapless boob steals iPhone while it demos realtime GPS tracking app

Filed under: Fun, Humor

Normally this one would fall just outside the Download Squad perimeter, but who doesn't enjoy chuckling at an unlucky criminal? And besides, there's software involved -- which you'll be able to download at some point -- which does kinda make it relevant!

See, this particular thief strolled up and nabbed an iPhone out of an unsuspecting woman's hand. Unfortunately for him, the phone was in the middle of a demo -- which happened to be for a realtime GPS tracking app with camera and mic support. The app -- Covia Labs' Alert & Respond -- was pumping out his position on a map of San Francisco as he made his escape.

Once the woman notified police, it took all of ten minutes to arrest the "thief" -- who probably could have saved himself some embarassment by looking at the iPhone's screen to see what it was doing.

At least Covia was kind enough not to turn on the mic or camera -- they didn't want to alert him.

Man, wouldn't it have been sweet if they had?

[via San Francisco Chronicle -- original image by Flickr user dbking]

Hapless boob steals iPhone while it demos realtime GPS tracking app originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Comment followup: Use sounds instead of missing keyboad LEDs with Toggle Keys

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Education

I recently wrote about a utility called Keyboard Leds which puts a small icon in your system tray showing keyboard LED status, for systems which do not have actual keyboards LEDs (or have tiny ones).

Commenter Lonnie McClure pointed out a very handy built-in Windows accessibility feature, which does the same job, but uses sound instead of images. It's called Toggle Keys, and it makes a short "chirp" when you hit Num Lock, Scroll Lock or Caps Lock, and a different chirp when you hit any of them again to turn it off. While this doesn't let you track their current status, it does let you prevent accidental activation and easily see if your press just turned the function on or off (because the sound is different).

What I like about this solution is that it doesn't add yet another system tray icon (I have 22 of those, at present), and that it's built right into Windows so it doesn't require an additional install. There are two ways to turn it on:

Keyboard shortcut: By default, just press and hold Num Lock for five seconds. You should then hear a chirp, which means the feauture is on. When you want to turn it back off, press and hold Num Lock for five seconds again.

Via the Control Panel: (In Windows 7) Go to Control Panel > Ease of Access Center > Make the keyboard easier to use > check Turn on Toggle Keys.

Thanks, Lonnie!

Comment followup: Use sounds instead of missing keyboad LEDs with Toggle Keys originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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