Month: July 2021

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  Two logos you do not expect to see together... [credit: Andrew Borman / Strong Museum of Play ]

The Strong National Museum of Play has obtained a rare demo of Super Mario Bros. 3 that a pre-Doom id Software coded for MS-DOS PCs back in 1990. The acquisition will ensure the historical curiosity will be preserved and accessible to researchers well into the future.

Students of video game history have long been aware of the existence of the demo, which was described in detail in David Kushner's excellent 2003 book Masters of Doom. id Software—then known as Ideas from the Deep (IFD)—coded the game in under a week and sent a copy to Nintendo in the hopes of getting a contract to develop an official PC port of the NES classic, which had launched in the US earlier in 1990.

Part of what made the demo special was a John Carmack-coded scrolling algorithm that went way beyond the stuttering background movements and full-screen wipes you'd usually see in late '80s DOS games. "When looking at PC games of the era, there really weren't titles with the smooth scrolling seen in Nintendo’s hits," Museum of Play Digital Games Curator Andrew Borman told Ars via email. And though Nintendo would never entertain the idea of a PC port for SMB3, id Software was "not deterred by the rejection [and] the technology was reused for Commander Keen, which is still one of my favorite series of that era," Borman said.

Enlarge / US first lady Jill Biden (L) comforts Adriana Lyttle, 12, as she receives her vaccine at a COVID-19 vaccination site at Ole Smoky Distillery in Nashville, Tennessee. (credit: Getty | Tom Brenner)

The Tennessee state government on Monday fired its top vaccination official, Dr. Michelle Fiscus, who says that state leaders have "bought into the anti-vaccine misinformation campaign."

In a fiery statement published late Monday by The Tennessean, Fiscus warns that as the delta variant continues to spread in the undervaccinated state, more Tennesseans "will continue to become sick and die from this vaccine-preventable disease because they choose to listen to the nonsense spread by ignorant people."

Fiscus is just the latest public health official to quit or lose their position amid the devastating pandemic, many aspects of which have become tragically politicized. Fiscus wrote that, as the now-former medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of Health, she is the 25th immunization director to leave their position amid the pandemic. With only 64 territorial immunization directors in the country, her firing brings the nationwide turnover in immunization directors to nearly 40 percent during the health crisis.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | uba-foto)

With broadband-industry lobby groups implausibly claiming that Internet providers have slashed their prices, Consumer Reports is on a mission to collect and analyze thousands of monthly Internet bills from real customers.

In an announcement today, Consumer Reports said it launched the Broadband Together initiative with 40 other groups to "analyze the cost, quality, and speeds that are being delivered to people in communities across the US and to better understand the factors that affect price and why consumers pay different rates for the same service." At least one thing is certain before the analysis begins: the actual amount ISPs charge is a lot higher than their advertised prices because of various fees that get tacked on after customers select a plan.

Over 6,600 people have already participated. You can join at the project website, which says the process takes seven minutes. "To participate, consumers will need an Internet bill, an Internet connection so CR researchers can test their speeds, and answer a few questions about their broadband service," Consumer Reports said. The group will analyze bills "to compare companies' prices and service" and figure out "what consumers actually pay for broadband."

(credit: Leder et al. 2021)

During the Middle Ages, people ventured into the cave now called Einhornhohle to collect unicorn bones. It’s tempting to wonder whether those medieval cryptid hunters would be disappointed or fascinated to learn that the bones they unearthed from the cave actually belonged to ancient bison, deer, cave lions, bears, and other animals that died 50,000 years ago. Archaeologists began excavating the cave in 2017, and while cleaning and sorting their trove of non-unicorn bones, they discovered the handiwork of a long-dead Neanderthal artisan.

Around 51,000 years ago, someone carved a geometric design into the second phalanx, or toe bone, of a giant deer. The carver was almost certainly a Neanderthal, based on the bone’s radiocarbon-dated age, because no one but Neanderthals lived in Europe until around 45,000 years ago. As archaeologist Dirk Leder of the Lower Saxony State Service for Cultural Heritage and his colleagues put it, Einhornhohle is “situated along the northern boundary of the world known to be inhabited by Neanderthals,” in the Harz Mountains of northern Germany.

Three parallel lines cut diagonally across the surface of the bone. Another of set of parallel lines cross the first three at more-or-less a right angle; the carver was a few degrees off, but that’s still respectably precise for someone eyeballing their measurements and working with a flint blade. At the base of the bone (the end closer to the leg), the carver added four short lines, roughly parallel but not lined up quite as precisely as the others. Leder and his colleagues describe the resulting pattern as “offset chevrons.”

(credit: Leder et al. 2021)

During the Middle Ages, people ventured into the cave now called Einhornhohle to collect unicorn bones. It’s tempting to wonder whether those medieval cryptid hunters would be disappointed or fascinated to learn that the bones they unearthed from the cave actually belonged to ancient bison, deer, cave lions, bears, and other animals that died 50,000 years ago. Archaeologists began excavating the cave in 2017, and while cleaning and sorting their trove of non-unicorn bones, they discovered the handiwork of a long-dead Neanderthal artisan.

Around 51,000 years ago, someone carved a geometric design into the second phalanx, or toe bone, of a giant deer. The carver was almost certainly a Neanderthal, based on the bone’s radiocarbon-dated age, because no one but Neanderthals lived in Europe until around 45,000 years ago. As archaeologist Dirk Leder of the Lower Saxony State Service for Cultural Heritage and his colleagues put it, Einhornhohle is “situated along the northern boundary of the world known to be inhabited by Neanderthals,” in the Harz Mountains of northern Germany.

Three parallel lines cut diagonally across the surface of the bone. Another of set of parallel lines cross the first three at more-or-less a right angle; the carver was a few degrees off, but that’s still respectably precise for someone eyeballing their measurements and working with a flint blade. At the base of the bone (the end closer to the leg), the carver added four short lines, roughly parallel but not lined up quite as precisely as the others. Leder and his colleagues describe the resulting pattern as “offset chevrons.”

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  The front of the MagSafe Battery Pack. [credit: Apple ]

Confirming previous rumors, Apple has begun selling a magnetic battery pack for MagSafe-equipped iPhone models. Dubbed simply the "MagSafe Battery Pack," it costs $99 on Apple's online store.

MagSafe is a new feature (with an old name) for the iPhone 12 lineup. Supported phones contain magnets on the back that can be used to attach accessories, including this one. Here, MagSafe ensures that the charger and the iPhone's charging coils are properly aligned.

The battery pack charges the iPhone at 5 W while unplugged or 15 W while plugged in. If we're deciphering Apple's ad copy accurately, the MagSafe Battery Pack itself can be charged at up to 15 W. But when the pack is attached to an iPhone and you charge both simultaneously, you can charge at 20 W.