Month: December 2021

Enlarge / People associated with the far-right group America First attend an anti-vaccine protest in front of Pfizer world headquarters on November 13, 2021, in New York City. (credit: Getty | Stephanie Keith)

People who choose to remain unvaccinated and subsequently become severely ill with COVID-19 should be responsible for paying the entirety of their hospital bills out of pocket, according to Illinois Representative Jonathan Carroll.

The Democrat from the Chicago suburb of Northbrook introduced legislation Monday that would amend the state's insurance code so that accident and health insurance policies in 2023 would no longer cover COVID-19 hospital bills for people who choose to remain unvaccinated. Carroll said the rule would not apply to those with medical conditions that prevent vaccination.

The bill will likely face considerable political and legal opposition. Most notably, federal law prevents insurers from denying coverage or increasing rates based on a change in a person's health status, such as a new diagnosis of COVID-19.

When we covered the first video games available on Tesla's center-console video screen back in 2019, we noted that the feature only worked when the car was parked. Now, though, those Tesla games can apparently be played even when the car is moving, a feature that could run afoul of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration guidelines and state laws designed to combat distracted driving.

While the ability to play Tesla games outside of Park is being highlighted in a New York Times report today, the change was seemingly rolled out months ago. A YouTube video from January shows Solitaire being played on a Tesla screen while the car is shifted into Autopilot mode, for instance (though other games appear not to work with Autopilot in the same video).

In another video posted in July, a Tesla owner shows space shoot-em-up Sky Force Reloaded being played while the car is shifted into drive. That video says the new capability was added as an unannounced feature of July's 2021.12.25.6 firmware update.

Enlarge / FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Communications and Technology Subcommittee on December 5, 2019, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla)

The US Senate today approved a new five-year term for Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Today's vote ensured that Rosenworcel won't have to leave the commission at the end of the year. But the FCC is still deadlocked at 2-2 between Democrats and Republicans—and the GOP is mounting a serious challenge against Gigi Sohn, the Biden nominee who would give Democrats a 3-2 majority.

Today's vote on Rosenworcel was 68-31, with Democrats and some Republicans approving the renomination. We'll update this story with more specifics on today's Senate vote later, but you can see the results of last night's cloture vote to end debate on the renomination here.

"It's the honor of my lifetime to lead the FCC and serve as the first permanent female Chair," Rosenworcel wrote on Twitter after the vote. "Thank you to the President and Senate for entrusting me with this responsibility. There's work to do to make sure modern communications reach everyone, everywhere. Now let's get to it."

Enlarge / The earliest-known version of the Aero theme in a March 2003 Windows Longhorn build, nearly four years before Windows Vista's public release. (credit: @thebookisclosed on Twitter)

If you're interested in the history of Windows, you probably know a bit about "Longhorn," Microsoft's internal codename for the OS update that would eventually become Windows Vista. Microsoft planned a huge list of new features for Longhorn (and its planned successor, codenamed Blackcomb), many of which never saw the light of day. Longhorn was supposed to include a filesystem to replace NTFS, something we still haven't gotten almost two decades later.

One of Vista's most noticeable and memorable additions was the "Aero" design, which used Direct3D to draw translucent, glassy windows that could fade gracefully in and out of view, replacing the 2D windows from older Windows versions. Over the weekend, Twitter user @thebookisclosed (who makes a habit of digging deep into old development versions of Windows) gave us a look at the earliest known version of Aero in a Longhorn development build from March of 2003, nearly four years before Vista would be released to the public.

This early Aero effect looks pretty different from what we eventually got in Windows Vista—the translucency and the smoked-glass look are here, but the final effect as seen in Windows Vista and Windows 7 is shinier, and the blur is more pronounced. (In the Longhorn version of the effect, the reduced blur could create readability issues if, for example, the text in the title bar and text in an underlying window were to run together.)

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Folks, it's time for another Dealmaster. For today's deal roundup, we're spotlighting a new Nintendo Switch bundle from Walmart that packages the base version of the mega-popular game console with a 12-month subscription to Nintendo's Switch Online service and an official carrying case at no extra cost. That comes out to roughly $40 in extras bundled into the Switch's normal going rate of $299.

It's true that the bigger, bolder display on the new Switch OLED has made the standard model look a bit dated by comparison—even if the two are equal in terms of performance—and Switch Online isn't quite as essential to enjoying the Switch as similar services from Microsoft (Xbox Live Gold) and Sony (PlayStation Plus) are for their respective machines.

However, if you're just jumping on the Switch bandwagon and don't want to drop an extra $50 for the still-hard-to-find Switch OLED's upgraded display, this is as good a deal as we can find for the console as of this writing. (Presuming you don't want the handheld-only Switch Lite.) Switch Online isn't necessary, but it's still required to use the online modes of games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and it gives access to a handful of classic NES and SNES games worth rediscovering. (A collection of N64 and Sega Genesis games are available in a pricier "Expansion Pack" tier that's not included in this deal, but those are something of a mess at the moment.) A carrying case is generally a must for traveling with the Switch, too. While we'd definitely like to see Nintendo offer more attractive deals for the nearly five-year-old console, there's at least some value here for last-minute shoppers looking for a device that remains in high demand.

Enlarge (credit: Getty)

Upon startup, some Chromebooks take a while to fully respond to user inputs. It may sound like a small problem, but that sluggishness is part of what makes Chromebooks feel like a step down from other types of machines. But according to a commit spotted on the Chromium Gerrit this week by About Chromebooks, Google is working on a fix.

The unresponsiveness is at least partially due to the virtual machine used to run Android apps on Chrome OS laptops (though the limited memory in many Chromebooks could also contribute to the problem). It seems that the Android Runtime for Chrome Virtual Machine (ARCVM) can hog the Chromebook's CPU when you first log in. The commit blames ARCVM for eating up to 300 percent (three cores times 100 percent) of the processor's resources "for several minutes."

According to the commit, ARCVM "continuously consumes [the Chromebook's] CPU for several minutes on user login before user has even launched any Android app or playstore [sic]."

Enlarge (credit: Getty)

Upon startup, some Chromebooks take a while to fully respond to user inputs. It may sound like a small problem, but that sluggishness is part of what makes Chromebooks feel like a step down from other types of machines. But according to a commit spotted on the Chromium Gerrit this week by About Chromebooks, Google is working on a fix.

The unresponsiveness is at least partially due to the virtual machine used to run Android apps on Chrome OS laptops (though the limited memory in many Chromebooks could also contribute to the problem). It seems that the Android Runtime for Chrome Virtual Machine (ARCVM) can hog the Chromebook's CPU when you first log in. The commit blames ARCVM for eating up to 300 percent (three cores times 100 percent) of the processor's resources "for several minutes."

According to the commit, ARCVM "continuously consumes [the Chromebook's] CPU for several minutes on user login before user has even launched any Android app or playstore [sic]."