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Comment Re:People actually liked the controller? (Score 3, Interesting) 92

Funny thing: I liked the old DC controller and the original Xbox controller. As long as you didn't hold them improperly, they were great.

The trick is, you are supposed to actually hold them in your HAND, not your fingers. That prevents finger strain and a lot of the RSI problems people get into with awkward hand positioning. The side of the controller goes into the crease between thumb and forefinger and across your palm, and your thumbs are free to use the buttons while your index and middle finger operate the triggers.

The Xbox controller was the first one I ever had a marathon gaming session with and felt no pain after. Couldn't say that about any of nintendo's controllers, nor the silly Playstation controllers that jab your hand with a too-short flange underneath each side and force you to curl your ring and pinky fingers in to try to hold it up.

It's ergonomics 101.

The other feature I "like" about the WiiU's controller is the theoretical ability to play a game on it while someone else uses the TV. Not enough to buy a WiiU, but I like the concept of the feature. The problem with it is that from what I hear, most companies don't really take advantage of that - they assume you have the TV running the game, and the pad screen available for some other form of readout, and so going to single-screen mode hurts your gameplay options.

I guess that's kind of like with the Wii's controller. There were a few games that used it really well, and a lot of third-party games (looking square at Activision here) where they implemented shitty controls to "show off" the motion-sensing features when there was no good gameplay reason to bother with motion-sensing anything.

Comment Re:Are PC gamers benefiting ? (Score 3, Insightful) 183

Better question: what game actually requires this?

Seriously now. Unless you're trying to just throw money away on some 6-screen rig or something, a single-screen at 1920x1080 will run almost all games of today fine from 3-year-old cards. "Bleeding edge" is a function of throwing your money away on diminishing returns problems.

Comment Re:Firmware update? Unlikely. (Score 2) 162

Sneakier to modify the reader, because then the register doesn't give you any clues if it's on stock firmware (and someone running a register diagnostic, checking firmware checksum, maybe even checking the firmware flash increment counter will come up blank too).

The attack here is going to be passing plausible-looking counterfeits to an unknowing person who trusts the reader/register in a "Garbage in, Gospel out" manner that most people approach computers with. Buy something or trick the cashier into making change and voila, "free money" for the counterfeiters.

Comment Re:Probably Obama. Or the Tea Party. (Score 5, Insightful) 569

Precisely this. The illusion of "choice" and "capitalism" is strong in the USA.

Then you get down to the nitty gritty.

In the town I live in, precious few grocery stores aren't the HEB brand. There is no real competition for them and they gouge.
In the neighborhood I life in, I can't get FiOS and the AT&T DSL options are a joke (they won't bother putting in capacity). So if you want anything but *shudder* dialup, your options are Warner, Warner, or... Warner. Zero competition, price gouging accordingly.

The communications market is so "deregulated" that monopolism takes over, with deliberate barriers to entry placed by noncompete agreements and dirty tactics. And yet so many people think anarcho-libertarian, "laissez faire" deregulation will somehow make their lives better in every aspect.

Comment Re:hire me (Score 1) 289

I wonder if everyone's already figured out that you can't fix the real problems.

Try to get upper management to follow the requirements of security. I'm not talking even the "OMG SO ONEROUS" stuff, I'm talking the basics. Not installing rogue wireless devices, not using insecure passwords, and for fuck's sake allow time for proper patching and testing.

The reason nobody goes into security is they know at the end of the day CEO Dipshit McRetard is going to have a screaming fit about how he's too "important" to remember a password or to properly change his password, and can't see why he should bother to or any other employee should either, because "security is the job we pay you to do and we shouldn't have to do anything to 'make your job easier' just make us secure already."

True story, I did consulting work for a construction firm for a while. Everyone's password was their username plus the company acronym, because the CEO wanted to "always know everyone's passwords in case he needed their files" (despite having full access via SMB shares they all used anyways). Never could get him to change it. I found out later he'd gone and created a Carbonite backup account and installed it on the server just in case, putting all their financial and other sensitive records there unencrypted too. The password was his wife's name. And her name was only 3 letters long.

You just can't fight that, and then you get blamed when their crappy decisions cause problems. It's a thankless task and that's why nobody wants to do it.

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