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Comment Re:RSI? Get a Kinesis Advantage (Score 1) 523

Most adjustable keyboard trays commonly found in office-type furniture will work fine with this keyboard, like this one or this one

The cheap, narrow kind of keyboard trays that you can find in the self-assembly desks (like this one) probably won't allow this keyboard to fit, but if you're concerned about RSI, chances are you don't have a cheap desk like the one in the pic.

Comment Re:RSI? Get a Kinesis Advantage (Score 1) 523

It really depends.

At work I use a Microsoft Trackball Explorer which is probably one of the best trackball mice ever made, and are nearly impossible to find nowadays.
I know a few people that use the Logitech Cordless Trackman Optical and love it, but it didn't feel confortable enough for my own use.

At home, I use a Logitech G9 mouse and a Ideazon Fang for gaming sessions, but for everything else I tend to just rely on keyboard shortcuts to navigate around my desktop.

Comment RSI? Get a Kinesis Advantage (Score 4, Informative) 523

I've been using a Kinesis Advantage keyboard for several years now and I have to say it's probably one of the best out there, specially if you have issues with RSI.
I ended up getting two; one which I leave at home on my workstation, and one that I have at work.

Programmable, very good tactile feedback (almost as good as the Model M), can be switched to Dvorak, and their support staff is phenomenal.
It will take you maybe a week or so to get accustomed to the key positions, but once you get the hang of it, you'll never go back.

If you're in the market for a good keyboard that will last you years, definitely have a look at these. They're a little pricey (about $300 or so, depending on the model), but they'll be the best money ever spent on a keyboard.

Software

Race and Racism In Video Games 371

SlappingOysters writes "Racism in video games has been a key topic of discussion in the game industry this year, thanks in large part to the controversy surrounding the Resident Evil 5 launch trailer. In this article, GamePlayer speaks to developers, publishers, activists and journalists about the issue to get various perspectives and insights into how the video game industry is moving forward on the topic of racism. A related piece also has interviews with Sue Clark from the UK's Classification Board and Dr. Griseldis Kirsch, a lecturer in Contemporary Japanese Studies, about how racism in video games is viewed by the BBFC and Japan respectively."
Privacy

Verizon Employees Fired For Snooping Obama's Record 344

longhairedgnome writes "The curiosity in President-elect Barack Obama's phone records came with a high price tag for Verizon Wireless employees. According to CNN, the workers who snooped on Obama's phone records have been fired. 'This was some employees' idle curiosity,' a company source told CNN and added 'we now consider this matter closed.' Justice served? What about legal possibilities?" Can we expect anyone who followed a warrantless wiretap from the Bush administration to also be fired then? I mean, they violated our privacy as well.

Comment Very first (non-sponsored) hit on Google! (Score 3, Insightful) 178

A link to the SANS Institute example for a Remote Access Policy doc (PDF format):

http://www.sans.org/resources/policies/Remote_Access_Policy.pdf

This is the first time I've come across anyone wanting a formal policy for this & online searches haven't been very helpful.

It looks like there's a trend going on; most of the last few Ask Slashdot articles seem to be written by people who can't be bothered to do a little work.

Networking

Remote Access Policies 178

Samalie writes "My company is considering implementing a formal remote access policy (and agreement for staff to sign) for users who access our network from home via VPN. Does anyone out there have any suggestions as to what this policy/agreement should contain? Anyone have their own corporate policy that I can borrow from? This is the first time I've come across anyone wanting a formal policy for this & online searches haven't been very helpful."

Comment Re:Get a PS3... (Score 1) 329

Additionally, console games shouldn't have a stationary 10-minute install screen.

Why not? PC games comparable to the console games you mention on average have much longer install periods than console games. Bioshock, HL2, Crysis, etc, all had long install times, much longer than the 10 or 15 minutes that something like Metal Gear Solid 4 took to install on the PS3.
Not all games require 10-minute installs, though. Little Big Planet is one of those that is ready to play out of the box, without long install screens.

Having a PS3 is kind of like having a Mac: all the inconvenience of PC sluggishness with the made-purposely-difficult restrictions of unofficial hardware use(e.g. installing an alternate operating system).

Hey, guess what? You can upgrade the built-in hard drive on the PS3 with any size SATA laptop hard drive, partition it, and install an alternate operating on the PS3, with Sony's blessing even. Seriously.
Fedora, Ubuntu, YellowDog, and OpenSuse are just some of the Linux distributions currently supported.

Judging by the way you refer to the PS3 and the Macs, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume you don't own either.

United States

Barack Obama Wins US Presidency 3709

Last night, around 11pm, all the major networks announced that Senator Barack Obama had won the election. Soon after, Senator McCain conceded. There were no crazy partisan court hearings, just a simple election. This is your chance to talk about it and what it means for the future of our nation.
GNU is Not Unix

Bringing OSS Into a Closed Source Organization? 427

Piranhaa writes "At the major corporation I work for, there is currently a single person who decides what software to approve and disapprove within the organization. I've noticed that requests from users for open source Windows programs get denied, nearly instantaneously, on a regular basis. Anything from Gimp, to Firefox, even to Vim don't make the cut due to the simple fact that they are open source. Closed source programs from unknown vendors have a much better chance at approval than Firefox does. The whole mentality here is that anybody can change the source of a project, submit it, and you never know what kind of compiled binary you're going to get. I'm a firm believer in open source code, but I also know closed source has its place. So what would be the best way for me to argue, with all the facts, to allow these people to come to their own conclusion that open source is actually good? Would presenting examples of other big companies moving to open source work, and if so what are some good examples? Or can you suggest any other good approaches?"
OS X

Apple 10.4.11 Update Can Brick Macs With Boot Camp 425

g-san writes "Some Mac users are having problems with the latest 10.4.11 update, yours truly included. The problem seems to be caused by the presence of a Boot Camp partition and renders the Mac unable to reboot after the update fails. Note the Geniuses at the Apple stores are recommending a full disk wipe; but data can be recovered via Firewire." MacNN has a note up that if you fall victim to this "known issue" and need to reformat the disk, you can't reinstall Boot Camp because it is no longer available to OS X 10.4 Tiger users.
Sci-Fi

Joss Whedon Back on TV 289

tokenhillbilly writes "Joss Whedon of 'Buffy' and 'Firefly' fame has signed on to do another TV series on Fox starring Eliza Dushku (Faith from 'Buffy'). The series is going to be called Dollhouse, and the story surrounds a group of people 'programmed' to do missions out of a sort of high-tech dorm. '[The series] follows a top-secret world of people programmed with different personalities, abilities and memories depending on their mission. After each assignment -- which can be physical, romantic or even illegal -- the characters have their memories wiped clean, and are sent back to a lab (dubbed the "Dollhouse"). [The] show centers on Dushku's character, Echo, as she slowly begins to develop some self-awareness, which impacts her missions.'"
Math

Kilogram Reference Losing Weight 546

doubleacr writes "Ran across a story on CNN that says the "118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight — if ever so slightly. Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies.""

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