Month: April 2020

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  The PlayStation 5's new gamepad is called DualSense and sports a bold two-toned design. Did Aperture Science make this? [credit: Sony / Aurich Lawson ]

While we still don't know what the PlayStation 5 console will look like (or whether it will really still hit its "holiday 2020" release window), we at least know about its controller. The PS5's gamepad, dubbed the DualSense, largely resembles previous DualShock models, but it appears to have just enough changes under the hood to merit a mostly new name.

Tuesday's surprise announcement comes courtesy of the official PlayStation Blog. The biggest technical difference comes in the form of a wholly updated "haptic feedback" suite, which we understand compares favorably to Nintendo's "HD rumble" feature in its Switch Joy-Con controllers. Sony senior VP Hideaki Nishino doesn't go into fine detail about how the DualSense's rumbling will differ from the DualShock 4 line, but finer-tuned haptic feedback can offer a greater range of rumble sensitivity and placement than most gamepads offer, at least when done right. "Stereo" rumbling feedback that carefully rumbles from one side to the other could be possible with such a system, but Sony didn't clarify.

Nishino only mentions one specific DualSense rumbling bonus compared to other gamepads: "Adaptive" rumbling feedback. Nishino offers a vague description of how pressing the PS5's "L2" and "R2" triggers will let players "truly feel the tension of your actions, like when drawing a bow to shoot an arrow."

Enlarge / A monitor seen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Verizon is canceling many home-Internet installations and repairs during the pandemic, and some customers are being given appointment dates in November when they try to schedule an installation.

The November appointment dates appear to be placeholders that will eventually be replaced by earlier dates. But Verizon is sending mixed messages to customers about when appointments will actually happen and about whether technicians are allowed to enter their homes.

As of yesterday, a Verizon FAQ said that "At this time, our technicians will not be able to enter your home or business to install new services or to do repair work," according to an Internet Archive capture of the page. The FAQ also said that customers who aren't eligible for self-installs "may proceed with placing an order for a technician-required installation" and "will receive notification to select an installation date when we resume operations."

A ruthless mercenary is hired to save the kidnapped son of an international crime lord in Extraction, a new film debuting later this month on Netflix to further alleviate our sheltering-in-place ennui. It's produced by the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: End Game), which is probably how the film snagged Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, as the star. We can thank Netflix for Stranger Things' David Harbour's welcome appearance.

Joe Russo penned the script, and the duo tapped stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave to make his directorial debut. Hargrave's stunt work has been featured in several MCU films (Captain America: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok, for example), as well as The Hunger Games franchise and Atomic Blonde. So if nothing else, we can definitely look forward to some well-choreographed action sequences with Extraction.

The official premise is short and sweet: "Tyler Rake (Hemsworth) is a fearless black market mercenary who embarks on the deadliest mission of his career when he’s enlisted to rescue the kidnapped son of an international crime lord." Compounding matters is the fact that Rake has recently lost his own son and is dealing with the grief and depression one might expect from such a tragedy. And the extraction of the crime lord's son, Ovi (played by newcomer Rudraksh Jaiswal), proves significantly more difficult than originally anticipated.

Enlarge / Martin Shkreli outside federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday, June 29, 2017. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)

Who can save us from disease and despair in these harrowing times? Why, none other than Martin Shkreli, of course.

Yes, the widely despised ex-pharmaceutical executive currently serving a seven-year federal prison term for fraud is, in fact, humanity’s One True Savior... if only we’d let him out of jail for a few months.

In a brief document posted online this week, Shkreli and a small band of associates lay out scientific plans to develop a cure for COVID-19.

Enlarge / It's not that kind of market, but remember going places? (credit: Jorge Franganillo / Flickr)

There’s more than one way to get people to do something. You could just tell them they have to do it, of course. But you could instead give them an end goal and an incentive to get there and let them work out how. The latter is basically the idea behind carbon cap-and-trade markets. You set a cap on the total amount of greenhouse gas that can be emitted and then let entities buy and sell the permits that allow a defined quantity of emissions. If one company can’t clean up its process, it’ll have to buy permits from one that can. If another company reduces its emissions greatly, it’ll be able to sell its excess permits for additional profit.

The EU set up one of these markets in 2005, known as the European Union Emissions Trading System, that covers emissions of industry and power plants. The price for permits has remained quite low on the market, though, prompting criticism that it was too lax to have any impact. Prices started between 20 and 30 euros per ton of CO₂ but have drifted below 10 euros in recent years. A new study by Patrick Bayer of the University of Strathclyde and Michaël Aklin of the University of Pittsburgh argues that it isn’t quite that simple, and the permits are having an effect despite their bargain-basement pricing.

Low, low prices

For starters, the price can be low for a number of reasons. Criticism has generally focused on the allocation of permits by governments—if there are too many given away, there’s little need to trade on the market. The researchers point out that there are other reasons that demand for permits can be low, including emissions reductions progressing faster than the overall cap is being ratcheted down.

Enlarge / Thomas Modly, now the former acting secretary of the Navy, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019. (credit: Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images)

Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly resigned today amid blowback for his handling of a coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the subsequent removal of its captain from command.

Modly offered his resignation earlier Tuesday, Politico reported, and Tuesday afternoon The Wall Street Journal was first to report that Acting Undersecretary of the Army James McPherson would supplant Modly in the role.

Modly relieved Captain Brett Crozier of his command on April 2, after the San Francisco Chronicle published a four-page letter Crozier had written to military officials asking for resources to protect his crew from a COVID-19 outbreak on board the ship.

Enlarge / A Verizon FiOS truck in Manhattan on September 15, 2017. (credit: Getty Images | Smith Collection | Gado)

Verizon is one of numerous home-Internet providers offering temporarily free service to low-income households during the pandemic. But a big restriction on Verizon's offer makes it impossible for many people to get the deal.

The Verizon problem is one of several that's been pointed out by advocates for poor people at the nonprofit National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA). Charter, CenturyLink, and Frontier have also been labeled disappointments even as Comcast earned praise. The NDIA is maintaining a list of pandemic-related telecom offers. A similar group called EveryoneOn offers a search tool to find low-income offers by ZIP code.

Verizon on March 23 said it would provide two months of free home-Internet and phone service for current low-income subscribers in the Lifeline program and $20 monthly discounts for new low-income subscribers. The $20 discount lowers the starting price for 200Mbps Internet to $19.99 a month. But the broadband offers are available only on Verizon's fiber-to-the-home FiOS service and not in DSL areas where Verizon never upgraded homes from copper to fiber.