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EA rebrand and refresh their anti-cheat into EA Javelin Anticheat, still blocks Linux / Steam Deck  GamingOnLinux

EA rebrand and refresh their anti-cheat into EA Javelin Anticheat, still blocks Linux / Steam Deck  GamingOnLinux

Proton 10 gets a first Beta to improve game compatibility on Steam Deck and Desktop Linux  GamingOnLinux

Proton 10 gets a first Beta to improve game compatibility on Steam Deck and Desktop Linux  GamingOnLinux

Proton 10 gets a first Beta to improve game compatibility on Steam Deck and Desktop Linux  GamingOnLinux

Proton 10 gets a first Beta to improve game compatibility on Steam Deck and Desktop Linux  GamingOnLinux

Proton 10 gets a first Beta to improve game compatibility on Steam Deck and Desktop Linux  GamingOnLinux

Proton 10 gets a first Beta to improve game compatibility on Steam Deck and Desktop Linux  GamingOnLinux

Proton 10 gets a first Beta to improve game compatibility on Steam Deck and Desktop Linux  GamingOnLinux

Proton 10 gets a first Beta to improve game compatibility on Steam Deck and Desktop Linux  GamingOnLinux

Proton 10 gets a first Beta to improve game compatibility on Steam Deck and Desktop Linux  GamingOnLinux

It’s been a while since my last update on my University of Georgia Self-Paced CFP class. I admit that other things have taken priority and I haven’t been keeping up. I’ve started back up and will go back to providing a very high overview of what they cover alongs with a few details I found especially unique or interesting. (They give you two years to finish, and I have about 5 months left, so time to get on it!)

The next major topic is Risk Management and Insurance Planning. Risk is defined as the possibility of loss. Risk management methods include reduction, avoidance, and transfer. Insurance is a way to transfer risk in exchange for money, although not all risk is insurable.

A lot of financial advice focuses on “offense”: maximizing income, minimizing expenses, and optimizing investments. But “defense” is just as important, as it includes protecting from loss of future income and loss of existing assets.

Three main categories of “Pure Risk” for individuals and families:

• Personal
• Property
• Liability

Social insurance from the government includes:

• Medicare
• Medicaid
• Unemployment Insurance
• FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
• PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation)
• Fannie Mae
• Freddie Mac
• National Flood Insurance Program
• Social Security

Commercially-available insurance that can help protect you from these risks include:

• Property & Casualty Insurance
• Health Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Annuities

Types of personal liability insurance.

• Personal Auto Policy (PAP): For motor vehicle-related liabilities.
• Homeowners Policy: Covers bodily injury/property damage to others.
• Comprehensive Personal Liability (CPL) Policy: Standalone liability coverage.
• Umbrella Policy: Broad, high-limit policy supplementing existing coverages.

You may not need all of them individually, but some combination of these should work together to make sure there no holes. It’s also possible that you may have duplicate coverage or otherwise too much insurance.

Role of a financial planner.

• Help clients identify coverage gaps or excesses.
• Refer clients to qualified Property & Casualty (P&C) agents.
• Evaluate insurance as part of a broader financial plan.

Example questions that a financial planner would discuss with clients about homeowner’s coverage:

• Is my house insured for 100% of the cost to replace the building (“replacement cost”, as opposed to “actual cash value” which includes depreciation)? Does that amount increase with inflation? Does that include any recent improvements or additions to the home?
• If my house is unlivable for a period of time, where am I going to live and how can I afford it when I must continue making mortgage payments?
• What if a domestic employee, houseguest, landscaper, is injured on my property?
• Have I done a simple smartphone video walkthrough of my house to serve as a rough inventory?
• Do I wish to add optional coverage for flood and/or earth movement?
• Is all of my personal property adequately covered? Including any unique or valuable special items?

Photo by Matt Hudson on Unsplash

Kosmos 482, a failed Soviet Venus probe, is expected to make an uncontrolled reentry in mid-May after orbiting Earth for 53 years. Gizmodo reports: The lander module from an old Soviet spacecraft is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere during the second week of May, according to Marco Langbroek, a satellite tracker based in Leiden, the Netherlands. "As this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere, it is possible that it will survive reentry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact," Langbroek wrote in a blog update. "The risks involved are not particularly high, but not zero." Kosmos 482 launched on March 31, 1972 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport in Kazakhstan. The mission was an attempt by the Soviet space program to reach Venus, but it failed to gain enough velocity to enter a transfer trajectory toward the scorching-hot planet. A malfunction resulted in an engine burn that wasn't sufficient to reach Venus' orbit and left the spacecraft in an elliptical Earth orbit, according to NASA. The spacecraft broke apart into four different pieces, with two of the smaller fragments reentering over Ashburton, New Zealand, two days after launch. Meanwhile, two remaining pieces, believed to be the payload and the detached upper-stage engine unit, entered a higher orbit measuring 130 by 6,089 miles (210 by 9,800 kilometers). The failed mission consisted of a carrier bus and a lander probe, which together form a spherical pressure vessel weighing more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms). Considering its mass, "risks are similar to that of a meteorite impact," Langbroek wrote. As of now, it's hard to determine exactly when the spacecraft will reenter. Langbroek estimates that the reentry will take place on May 10, but a more precise date will get clearer as the reentry date nears.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: Daily exposure to certain chemicals used to manufacture household plastics may be connected to more than 356,000 cardiovascular-related deaths in 2018 alone, a new analysis has found. These chemicals, called phthalates, are present in products around the world but have particular popularity in the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific -- regions that collectively bore about 75 percent of the global death total, according to the research, published on Tuesday in the Lancet eBioMedicine. Phthalates, often used in personal care products, children's toys and food packaging and processing materials, are known to disrupt hormone function and have been linked to birth defects, infertility, learning disabilities and neurological disorders. The NYU Langone Health team focused in the analysis on a kind of phthalate called di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), which is used to make items like food containers and medical equipment softer and more flexible. Scientists have already shown that exposure to DEHP can trigger an overactive immune response in the heart's arteries, which over time can be linked to increased risk of heart attack or stroke. In the new analysis, the researchers estimated that DEHP exposure played a role in 356,238 global deaths in 2018, or nearly 13.5 percent of heart disease mortality among men and women ages 55 through 64. [...] These findings are in line with the team's previous research, which in 2021 determined that phthalates were connected to more than 50,000 premature deaths each year among older Americans -- most of whom succumbed to heart conditions. But this latest analysis is likely the first global estimate of cardiovascular mortality resulting from exposure to these environmental contaminants [...]. In a separate report from the New York Times, author Nina Agrawal highlights some of the caveats with the data. First of all, the study relies heavily on statistical modeling and assumptions, drawing from prior research that may include biases and confounding factors like diet or socioeconomic status. It also uses U.S.-based risk estimates that may not generalize globally and focuses only on one type of phthalate (DEHP). Additionally, as Agrawal points out, this is an observational study, showing correlation rather than causation. As such, more direct, long-term research is needed to clarify the true health impact of phthalate exposure.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google Play's app marketplace has seen a dramatic 47% drop in available apps -- from 3.4 million to 1.8 million -- since the start of 2024. An analysis by app intelligence provider Appfigures attributes the decline to stricter quality standards, expanded human reviews, and increased enforcement against low-quality and deceptive apps. TechCrunch reports: In July 2024, Google announced it would raise the minimum quality requirements for apps, which may have impacted the number of available Play Store app listings. Instead of only banning broken apps that crashed, wouldn't install, or run properly, the company said it would begin banning apps that demonstrated "limited functionality and content." That included static apps without app-specific features, such as text-only apps or PDF file apps. It also included apps that provided little content, like those that only offered a single wallpaper. Additionally, Google banned apps that were designed to do nothing or have no function, which may have been tests or other abandoned developer efforts. Reached for comment, Google confirmed that its new policies were factors here, which also included an expanded set of verification requirements, required app testing for new personal developer accounts, and expanded human reviews to check for apps that try to deceive or defraud users. In addition, the company pointed to other 2024 investments in AI for threat detection, stronger privacy policies, improved developer tools, and more. As a result, Google prevented 2.36 million policy-violating apps from being published on its Play Store and banned more than 158,000 developer accounts that had attempted to publish harmful apps, it said. TechCrunch also notes that a new trader status rule, which went into effect in the EU this February, could be another contributing factor. It requires developers to display their names and addresses in their app listings, and failure to comply would see their apps removed from EU app stores.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thunderbird 138 Adds New Default Color Override for High Contrast Mode on Linux  9to5Linux

Thunderbird 138 Adds New Default Color Override for High Contrast Mode on Linux  9to5Linux

Thunderbird 138 Adds New Default Color Override for High Contrast Mode on Linux  9to5Linux

Thunderbird 138 Adds New Default Color Override for High Contrast Mode on Linux  9to5Linux

Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham reports: Intel's oddball Core Ultra 200V laptop chips -- codenamed Lunar Lake -- will apparently be a one-off experiment, not to be replicated in future Intel laptop chips. They're Intel's only processors with memory integrated onto the CPU package; the only ones with a neural processing unit that meets Microsoft's Copilot+ performance requirements; and the only ones with Intel's best-performing integrated GPUs, the Intel Arc 130V and 140V. Today, Intel announced some updates to its graphics driver that specifically benefit those integrated GPUs, welcome news for anyone who bought one and is trying to get by with it as an entry-level gaming system. Intel says that version 32.0.101.6734 of its graphics driver can speed up average frame rates in some games by around 10 percent, and can speed up "1 percent low FPS" (that is, for any given frames per second measurement, whatever your frame rate is the slowest 1 percent of the time) by as much as 25 percent. This should, in theory, make games run better in general and ease some of the stuttering you notice when your game's performance dips down to that 1 percent level.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.