Tossing vaccine priority list, Biden tells states to open eligibility by May 1

In “war-time” effort, all adult Americans will have access to vaccine by May 1.

An older man in a suit speaks into a microphone on a podium.

Enlarge / US President Joe Biden speaks on the anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 11, 2021. (credit: Getty | Mandel Ngan)

On the first anniversary of the global COVID-19 pandemic, US President Joe Biden announced that he will direct states to open vaccine eligibility to all American adults no later than May 1, a dramatic acceleration of the national immunization plan that has been sluggish and, at times, chaotic.

"That's much earlier than expected," Biden said in a televised, prime-time address. It doesn't mean every American over age 18 will have their shot by then, Biden cautioned, but you'll be able to get in line.

The announcement means that carefully crafted prioritizations for vaccines will soon no longer apply. The White House COVID-19 Response Team landed on May 1 for the deadline after concluding that national vaccination efforts would be far-enough along by the end of April to make the prioritizations obsolete anyway.

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Manipulation von Syrien-Bericht: Prominente Kritik an OPCW

Erklärung fordert von Organisation für das Verbot chemischer Waffen “Transparenz und Verantwortung”. Kritik bezieht sich auf einen seit fast drei Jahren schwelenden Konflikt

Erklärung fordert von Organisation für das Verbot chemischer Waffen "Transparenz und Verantwortung". Kritik bezieht sich auf einen seit fast drei Jahren schwelenden Konflikt

Lilbits: New tricks for old gadgets (Twitter for PalmOS, videos for Game Boys)

Mobile devices have come a long way in the past two decades. There are billions of smartphones in the world that people use to keep in touch, watch cat videos, and argue on social media. They’re basically pocket-sized computers. And while we had…

Twitter for PalmOS

Twitter for PalmOSMobile devices have come a long way in the past two decades. There are billions of smartphones in the world that people use to keep in touch, watch cat videos, and argue on social media. They’re basically pocket-sized computers. And while we had pocket-sized computers twenty years ago, they were much slower and much more […]

The post Lilbits: New tricks for old gadgets (Twitter for PalmOS, videos for Game Boys) appeared first on Liliputing.

Critics fume after Github removes exploit code for Exchange vulnerabilities

Microsoft-owned Github pulls down proof-of-concept code posted by researcher.

Critics fume after Github removes exploit code for Exchange vulnerabilities

Enlarge (credit: Github)

Github has ignited a firestorm after the Microsoft-owned code-sharing repository removed a proof-of-concept exploit for critical vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange that have led to as many as 100,000 server infections in recent weeks.

ProxyLogon is the name researchers have given both to the four Exchange vulnerabilities under attack in the wild and the code that exploits them. Researchers say that Hafnium, a state-sponsored hacking group based in China, started exploiting ProxyLogon in January, and within a few weeks, five other APTs—short for advanced persistent threat groups—followed suit. To date, no fewer than 10 APTs have used ProxyLogon to target servers around the world.

Microsoft issued emergency patches last week, but as of Tuesday, an estimated 125,000 Exchange servers had yet to install it, security firm Palo Alto Networks said. The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have warned that ProxyLogon poses a serious threat to businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies that remain vulnerable.

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Google Maps introduces a way for users to add and edit roads (again)

Maps is also getting a new way to upload photos to place listings.

Google plans to introduce a new feature to Google Maps that will allow users to draw missing roads directly on the map, ostensibly improving the service's coverage in some areas where Google's data sources are not comprehensive.

The feature will only be available on the desktop web version of Google Maps, not on mobile phone apps. And it will—at least at first—be offered in 80 countries. Google says it will "vet" these suggested map changes before publishing them for other users to see.

Here's how it works, according to Google:

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Facebook asks judge to toss antitrust suits, claiming no consumer harm

Facebook’s arguments boil down to “no we didn’t, and you have no standing.”

Extreme close-up image of Facebook and Instagram icons on a smartphone screen.

Enlarge / Just two of the many apps Facebook owns and operates. (credit: Tom Weller | DeFodi Images | Getty Images)

Facebook is asking a federal judge to dismiss landmark antitrust suits against the company, arguing that its "innovative free products deliver value" to consumers and that there's no evidence it behaved anticompetitively or broke the law.

The Federal Trade Commission and almost every state in the country filed a pair of lawsuits in December arguing that Facebook abused its market power when it acquired rival firms, most notably WhatsApp and Instagram, and thus prevented competitors from presenting a more privacy-conscious alternative to consumers.

"Facebook's actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition," FTC Bureau of Competition Director Ian Conner said at the time. "Our aim is to roll back Facebook's anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive."

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Sony’s DualSense controller for the PlayStation 5 is $10 off today

Dealmaster also has deals on Mario games, Peacock, and internal SSDs.

Sony’s DualSense controller for the PlayStation 5 is $10 off today

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Today's Dealmaster is headlined by a $10 discount on Sony's DualSense controller, bringing it down to $60 at Amazon subsidiary Woot. This is the first significant deal we've seen for the PlayStation 5 gamepad, which has retailed for $70 at major retailers since the PS5's launch last year.

Our PS5 review gave a favorable impression of the DualSense: it's a bit bigger than the old DualShock 4 but still comfortable to hold, and it has an impressively detailed haptic rumble system, a built-in microphone for voice chat (with a built-in mute function), USB-C charging, and the same general layout that PlayStation owners have become accustomed to over the past couple of decades.

There have been reports of controllers suffering from drifting joysticks and busted triggers in the months since the PS5's launch, which is worrying, though Sony at least appears to cover those issues under warranty (albeit with an added shipping cost). Either way, with PS4 controllers only supported on PS4 games and the market for third-party PS5 controllers almost entirely barren, the DualSense is more or less the only option PS5 owners have. If you need a spare today—and are actually able to purchase a PS5 in the first place—this deal should lessen the blow to some extent.

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Putting Roblox’s incredible $45 billion IPO in context

Wednesday’s stock offering values the user-created game platform higher than EA.

Yesterday, Roblox made good on its plans to go public, with employees and previous investors selling hundreds of millions of shares in a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. In a private funding round in January, those shares were worth $45. When the market closed Wednesday, they were selling at $69.50, a price that valued Roblox Corp. as a whole at $45.3 billion (as of this writing, Roblox Corp.'s stock price peaked at $77.30 and currently sits at $72.72 in Thursday morning trading).

How did this company, whose single title has become a game platform unto itself, become worth more than major game publishers like Electronic Arts and Take-Two? To help answer that question, we put together this deep dive into the numbers that are powering the Roblox revolution. They paint a picture of a company with an extremely young and incredibly engaged user base that has ballooned during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. But Roblox is also a company that is struggling to convert its huge and growing annual revenues into profitability.

(Unless otherwise noted, numbers are sourced from SEC documents or Roblox's own website)

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Democratic-led Congress gets serious about universal broadband funding

Congress OKs $7 billion for broadband and has another $94 billion teed up.

Illustration of the United States, with fiber-optic cables circling around the Earth.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Henrik5000)

Congress this week approved a $7.17 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund that schools and libraries will use to help people get Internet access at home. The fund is part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan stimulus sent to President Joe Biden yesterday after being approved by the House and Senate. Biden signed the bill into law today.

The emergency fund should help students who live in areas where broadband is available but cannot afford it. This emergency measure may just be a prelude to a $94 billion broadband package that includes $80 billion to deploy high-speed broadband to parts of the US that do not have it.

Democrats introduced the $94 billion broadband initiative yesterday—it isn't yet clear whether or when it will pass, but such initiatives have a much better chance now that Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress. More details on the larger broadband bill are included later in this article.

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