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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co Ltd's oral pill for relieving pain after the onset of migraine headaches, the drug developer said.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Robert Redfield told the U.S. Congress on Thursday that his agency is aggressively evaluating how long coronavirus can survive and be infectious on surfaces.

California is monitoring more than 8,400 people for coronavirus symptoms after arrival on commercial flights, but the state lacks test kits and is being held back by federal testing rules, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Switzerland rose to nine on Thursday, as the canton of Basel-City put a number of children into a two-week quarantine after one of their caregivers tested positive for the virus.

Even as U.S. officials warn of an inevitable outbreak of coronavirus in the United States, and are alerting Americans to take precautions, some health agencies charged with protecting the public appear unprepared to deal with the threat.

(Reuters Health) - Human rabies deaths are so rare in the United States that even healthcare providers may not recognize a rabies infection - or the role that bats might play - which puts patients and the public at further risk, researchers say.

The Saudi ministry of tourism temporarily suspended on Thursday issuing electronic tourist visas for those coming from China, Italy, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Kazakhstan, the Saudi news agency (SPA) reported.

Some 130 guests were cleared on Thursday to leave a Tenerife hotel placed on lockdown after four cases of the coronavirus were detected there, but there were no signs that would happen soon while authorities scrambled to address the situation.

(Reuters Health) - Discomfort in the calf and upper legs during walking is a hallmark of narrowed blood vessels due to heart disease, but walking more - not less - can help ease the pain, experts say.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday there were no reported shortages of medical devices within the country due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

QR codes may not be as prolific as they once were, but they’re still highly useful for quickly sharing information. The thing is, it’s not always clear how to scan one. If you’re an Android user, here’s the skinny.

The Easiest Way: Use Google Lens in the Assistant

You may not realize this, but if your phone has Google Assistant, you have a fast, easy, and native way to scan QR codes baked right into your handset.

First, long-press the home button to bring up Assistant.

Depending on which version of Assistant you have, you might have the Lens button right there as soon as Assistant pops up. Most likely, however, you need to tap on it to stop it from listening for a voice command. Just tap on the colored dots.

Once it stops listening, new options become available: Lens to the left of the mic, keyboard to the right. Tap on the “Lens” button.

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Fatmawati Achmad Zaenuri/Shutterstock.com

If Linux means anything, it means choice. You can achieve even a simple task like identifying the current user in many ways. This tutorial will show you how to use some of the quickest and easiest methods.

Why would you need to find the identity of the current user? In many cases the owner of the computer is the only user and, without getting too existential, they probably know themselves. Perhaps, but it is also common for people to create additional user accounts to allow family members to have access to the computer. And, if you’re connected to a remote shell on a server somewhere, you may need a quick reminder of the username you’re logged in with. If you see a logged in session with no one in attendance, how do you identify the current user from the command line?

Let’s try the easiest option first. All we need to do is look at the command prompt. By default, Linux distributions have the username in the prompt. Simple. We didn’t even have to type a thing.

If the user has changed their prompt to some other format we need to try something else. The who command will give us the information we are looking for.

who

The output from who gives you the name of the current user, the terminal they are logged in at, the date and time when they logged in. If it is a remote session, it also tell us where they are logged in from.

By comparison, the whoami command provides a very pithy answer:

whoami

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SpeedShutter/Shutterstock

While a zombie apocalypse isn’t likely, real disasters can strike at any time, and it’s smart to be ready. If you want to be prepped when a flood or tornado hits, you should start with a 72-hour emergency kit.

What Is a 72-Hour Emergency Kit?

A 72-hour emergency kit is a collection of items you can use to get through an emergency. This includes basics like food, water, and medications. It also includes items you need specifically for certain members of your household, like pets and babies.

The idea is that the kit contains everything the people in your home will need for 72 hours. It’s also important that you put all of those items in containers that are easy to carry. Consider the fact that you may have to walk to somewhere safe. A couple of backpacks or duffel bags are a wiser choice than plastic bins.

What to Put in Your 72-Hour Emergency Kit Radowitz/Shutterstock

There are some specific things you should have in even the most basic emergency kit. These items include:

Food

Mahatma Gandhi proved that you could go 21 days without food in his longest fast, but he had also trained himself in such matters. Yes, humans can survive for weeks without food, but that kind of hunger takes its toll. After a few days without food, you might notice weakness, lack of motivation, and reduced decision-making ability, all of which get worse the longer you go without eating.  

For food, look for non-perishable items that you can eat without cooking. MREs from the military come in handy, and they are safety sealed with extended expiration dates. You’ll need enough for three days’ worth of meals for each person. Invest in mess kits as well, which ensure each person has a plate, cup, and silverware. If you pack canned foods, add a manual can opener.

Water

Your body is made up of a lot of water, around 60%. This makes water consumption even more important than food. The length of time a person can go without water varies. Scientific America explains it well: some people may only survive hours when extremely dehydrated, but others could be fine for a week with no water intake. Going without water can still cause health issues, and it’s important to have a clean source with you in case of emergencies.

Even if you could go without water for an extended period, you shouldn’t. According to a study from the National Institute of Health, even mild levels of dehydration can impact your cognitive performance:

Being dehydrated by just 2% impairs performance in tasks that require attention, psychomotor, and immediate memory skills, as well as assessment of the subjective state.

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Adobe

Adobe pulls the plug on Shockwave—no, not Shockwave Flash, which is different—today. Dating back to 1995 when it was named Macromedia Shockwave, this plugin was used for games, presentations, and other multimedia on the web.

RIP Shockwave

Adobe is discontinuing Shockwave today, on April 9, 2019. You can no longer download the Shockwave Player for Windows from Adobe, although enterprise customers with support contracts can use it for a few more years. The Shockwave Player for Mac was discontinued back in 2017. If you find an old website hosting Shockwave content, it isn’t playable with any officially supported software.

Luckily, the web has moved on from Shockwave, so Shockwave is something you’ll only see when browsing web pages from more than a decade ago.

Flash is still around for a while yet. Adobe plans to discontinue Flash by the end of 2020.

Adobe Shockwave vs. Adobe Flash

Both Shockwave and Flash were developed by Macromedia, a company Adobe acquired back in 2005. Each is a multimedia software platform with a web browser plugin. Shockwave content is played by the “Shockwave Player” plugin, while Flash content is played by the “Flash Player” plugin.

Shockwave has become largely irrelevant as Flash gained more and more of its abilities over the years. But the two products have different histories. Shockwave’s pedigree goes back further, all the way to VideoWorks for the original Apple Macintosh. CD-ROMs featuring point-and-click adventures and educational experiences created with Shockwave were popular in the early 90s and were created by Macromedia Director. The Shockwave Player plugin was released in 1995 to bring those features to the burgeoning web.

Macromedia introduced features targeted at the video game industry in 2001, and there’s a good chance you played a Shockwave game in your browser in the years after that. For example, Candystand.com was owned by Nabisco, the company behind Life Savers, and featured a variety of browser games that used Shockwave. The above YouTube video shows an officially licensed Donkey Kong Country game released in 2003. Yes, Nintendo created browser games in partnership with Life Savers candy.

The web was full of experiences like this—most of which have now been lost to time. Habbo Hotel was an online social community/virtual world aimed at teenagers. Habbo started out using Shockwave and later switched from Shockwave to Flash as the web moved on.

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The Hairy Ball Theorem Helps Explain What?

1. Antenna Transmission Models
2. Global Warming
3. Immune System Responses
4. Intersolar Gravitational Fields

Think you know the answer?

Microsoft announced last December it would move the Edge over to the Chromium rendering engine. Leaked builds hit the web a few weeks ago, but now you can try an official build from Microsoft. Here’s how to set it up.

GoodBye EdgeHTML, Hello EdgeChromium

When Microsoft announced it would stop work on EdgeHTML and switch the Edge browser over to Chromium, we had many questions. Some, like if the switch meant gaining Chrome Extensions support, were answered pretty quickly. But the big question has been, “when can we try it?” Microsoft opened up an Insider page to request updates but today, ahead of any emails we’ve seen, you can download an official build from Microsoft.

Just keep in mind that the two options right now are a Dev build (which updates weekly), and a Canary build (which updates daily). The beta option, which will be the most stable and updates every six weeks, is not available. You should probably keep that in mind and not use this browser for anything important. In our very early testing, it at least seems stable enough for casual browsing.

Also, Microsoft states in its blog that this is for 64-bit Windows 10 only for now. They promise support for other platforms, like Windows 7, Windows 8.1, macOS, and other channels, like Beta and Stable later.

How to Install And get Started

Installing the new Edge browser is a pretty straightforward affair. Head to Microsoft’s download site, and pick a channel. Pick Dev Channel for a more stable option, Canary for bleeding edge and a first look at new features and probably new bugs.

Once you’ve installed, you’ll be prompted to choose a new tab page style. This is similar to the new articles options on the traditional Edge, and if you don’t want to be bombarded with news from MSN, or fancy images, choose the focused option.

Next, you can import data from other browsers. Click on the more options in the top right corner (which looks like three horizontal dots) then click on settings.

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Stringify, the IFTTT-like service that helped users build in-depth automated tasks, announced today that it’s shutting down. Stringify’s apps will be removed from stores today, with the service being fully deactivated at the end of June.

In an email sent to existing users, Stringify says it will continue to support the service until the end of June, at which time it will shut down, and all user data will be deleted. Here’s the full email:

Dear Shut Down,

After nearly five years of transforming how people automate their connected lives, I’m sorry to inform you that we are beginning the process of deactivating the Stringify app. This isn’t a decision we made lightly, but as our focus increasingly shifts to developing new connected-home experiences at Comcast, we made a strategic decision to step back from developing the app.

You don’t need to take any action right away. While we will be removing Stringify from app stores today, we will continue to operate and support the service for existing users through the month of June. When we deactivate the app, we will also delete all of your user data.

We know that Stringify plays a big part in our users’ daily lives, and we want to make sure everyone has plenty of time to adjust.

To that end, I’d also like to offer a couple of recommendations of potential technology alternatives. While I’d encourage you to do your own research, our team thinks these solutions each offer unique value.

IFTTT – A great free-to-use service that offers a lot of the same functions and capabilities as Stringify.
Yonomi – Another free-to-use service that supports many connected devices and experiences.
WebCore – For users of Samsung SmartThings platform. Some folks on our team have been using and enjoying it.

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Apple passes Spotify subscribers in the US, Google’s Pixel 3a and 3a XL leak (again), Microsoft makes it easier to remove USB drives, and a whole lot more. Here are the biggest stories from the weekend to start your Monday.

Netflix Kills AirPlay Support Because of “Technical Limitations”

Netflix has supported casting content with Apple AirPlay since 2013, but over the weekend it “suddenly” pulled the plug on the feature. It was originally speculated this was a response to Apple upcoming TV+ service, but it turns out it’s actually…something different

As discovered by The Verge, this has nothing to do with TV+, but rather the fact that AirPlay is no longer limited to Apple TV devices and is rolling out to third-party devices, like Vizio TVs. In an official statement, Netflix claims that it “can’t distinguish which device is which” or “certify devices,” so it “had to just shit down support for it. ” Wow.

Here’s the full statement, as given to The Verge:

We want to make sure our members have a great Netflix experience on any device they use. With AirPlay support rolling out to third-party devices, there isn’t a way for us to distinguish between devices (what is an Apple TV vs. what isn’t) or certify these experiences. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue Netflix AirPlay support to ensure our standard of quality for viewing is being met. Members can continue to access Netflix on the built-in app across Apple TV and other devices.

It’s interesting because you’d think that, as a standard, AirPlay should work the same across all devices—just like Google’s Casting platform. It doesn’t matter if you’re casting to Chromecast, Android TV, or a TV with native casting support, it just works. Netflix clearly sees something different here with AirPlay devices outside of Apple TV.

While it may not seems huge since most device’s have native Netflix support in the first place, this is still a pretty hard blow to Apple TV users since they’re essentially being “penalized” by Apple’s choice to open the AirPlay platform to third-party manufacturers.

Hopefully, at some point there will be a standardized way to test these devices and Netflix can re-enable AirPlay support across all compatible devices. Until then, however, the company recommends everyone switch to the native app.

Apple News: Music Now Has More Paid Subscribers Than Spotify in the US

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If you’ve got an Office 365 subscription, then there might be times you need help from Microsoft. Here’s how to log a ticket from a client app, from a web app, or through your Office 365 account.

All of these methods will create a ticket that goes to Microsoft support, but whichever way you log a ticket, you’ll need to be online.

Note: At the moment the Office 365 mobile apps will take you to the help and support pages, but there’s no direct method to create a support ticket. You can click around the help site until you find a link to a support page, but that’s not the same as having a specific option to contact support. If you get a problem with a mobile app, you’re best off logging a ticket using one of the methods we describe below.

Log a Ticket From a Client App on Your Computer

Logging a support ticket from inside a client app is pretty straightforward. In any of the applications—Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or OneNote—click Help > Contact Support.

Enter the details of your problem and then click “Get Help.”

Microsoft will try to match your description of the problem with suitable help articles, but assuming these don’t help (and they might so give them a try first) click on “Talk to an agent.”

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Amazon, Meh, PC Liquidators

The weekend’s over, but you don’t have to give into the Monday blues. Discounted phones, games, tablets, laptops, and smart devices should help you turn that work-week frown upside down.

Right now, sites like Best Buy, Amazon, Meh, and PC Liquidators are running some killer deals that are hard to ignore. Our favorite deals (by far) are the $89 iPad from PC Liquidators, the $18 Incipio Qi Wireless Charger 3-pack from Meh, and the $40 GameCube-styled wireless Nintendo Switch controller from Amazon.

Laptops and Computer Accessories

Need a new laptop, or a discounted trackball? We’ve got the deals for you.

• MacBook Pro 2017 Model, $1500 ($200 off) [Best Buy]
• Extra 50% Refurbished Dell Latitude Laptops (coupon code BUY7250NOW) [Dell]
• Lenovo Ideapad Celeron, $240 ($30 off) [Best Buy]
• HP 2-in-1 Chromebook, $450 ($150 off) [Best Buy]
• Logitech MX Ergo Plus Wireless Trackball Mouse, $60 ($40 off) [Quill]
• ADATA 240GB SSD, $25 ($5 off) [Massgenie]

Phones, Tablets, Smartwatches, and Wireless Charging Pads

Grab a new phone, tablet, or smartwatch at a discount.

• Samsung Galaxy S9 64GB Unlocked, $400 ($200 off) [Best Buy]
• iPhone 6s Plus 32GB Prepaid, $200 ($200) [Best Buy]
• iPad 4th Gen 16GB Refurbished, $89 ($50 off) [PC Liquidations]
• Huawei Mediapad M5 64GB, $247 ($33 off) [Rakuten]
• Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3, $269 ($140 off) [B&H]
• Samsung Gear Fit2 Smartwatch Refurbished, $110 ($90 off) [Best Buy]
• Fitbit Alta HR Fitness Tracker, $60 ($39) [Massgenie]
• Incipio Qi Wireless Charging Pad 3-Pack, $18 ($18 off) [Meh]

Video Games, TVs, and Board Games

Grab a copy of Kingdom Hearts III or Yoshi’s Crafted World at a major discount.

• Nintendo Switch Console, $260 ($40 off) [Massgenie]
• PowerA Wireless GameCube Controller Nintendo Switch, $40 ($30 off) [Amazon]
• Yoshi’s Crafted World Nintendo Switch, $45 ($15 off) [Massgenie]
• Nintendo Switch Labo Robot Kit, $40 ($20 off) [Amazon]
• Diablo 3 Eternal Collection Nintendo Switch, $40 ($20 off) [Amazon]
• Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition Nintendo Switch, $35 ($15 off) [Best Buy]
• Valkyria Chronicles 4 Nintendo Switch, $28 ($32 off) [Best Buy]
• Xbox One S 1TB with Titanfall 2 & Sunset Overdrive, $185 ($35 off with coupon code ALT33X) [Rakuten]
• Kingdom Hearts III Xbox One, $40 ($20 off) [Best Buy]
• Xbox Game Pass 1 Month, $1 ($9 off) [Microsoft]
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition Xbox One, $20 ($20 off) [GameStop]
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition PS4, $20 ($20 off) [GameStop]
• Kingdom Hearts III PS4, $40 ($20 off) [Best Buy]
• Risk Legacy Board Game, $39 ($21 off) [Amazon]
• Samsung 54.5″ QLED Curved TV, $800 ($700 off) [Micro Center]

Smart Home Products

Upgrade your home with these discounted smart devices.

• Blink XT Home Security System 3-Camera Kit, $200 ($120 off) [Amazon]
• Sylvania RGBW Smart Light Strips, $22 ($22 off) [Amazon]
• Echo Dot Kids Edition, $35 ($35 off) [Amazon]
• Google Home Hub, $80 ($20 off) [Massgenie]
• Roborock Smart Vacuum Cleaner, $390 ($110 off) [Newegg]
• Save up to 70% on Sylvania Products (Note: Some aren’t smart) [Amazon]

Everything Else

Need a new Bluetooth speaker or a memory foam mattress? We’ve got the deals for you.

• Rakuten 15% off Sitewide (Coupon Code Save15) [Rakuten]
• Anker Soundcore Flare Bluetooth Speaker 2-Pack, $70 ($40 off) [Amazon]
• Biofreeze Pain Relief Gel 2-Pack, $10 ($10 off with coupon clip) [Amazon]
• Fiskars 3 Claw Weeder, $30 ($8 off) [Target]
• Hefty Quart Size Slider Storage Bags 4-Boxes, $11 ($4 off with coupon clip) [Amazon]
• GranRest 6″ Memory Foam Mattress Queen, $141 ($53 off) [Walmart]
• BioBidet SlimEdge Bidet, $26 ($33 off) [Amazon]
• Mainstays Handheld Steam Iron, $5 ($3 off) [Walmart]

Keep in mind that these deals won’t last forever. Be sure to grab your favorite deals before they disappear into the abyss.