I got married on the 29th, just had my "first" anniversary. We celebrate every year around the day, and treat the ones on the 29th like most people treat their divisible by 5-year anniversary. So every 4 years (therefore more often than most people) we plan something extra-special instead of the usual way we celebrate.

I still have yet to see any long-term annoyance.

You likely will want to install PostGIS http://postgis.refractions.net/ as well. PostgreSQL can do simple geometry and distances and will get you by with some simple functions. PostGIS adds on the real GIS functions and calculations.

He's not trying to complete on price w/ Microsoft; So there's nothing stopping him from buying an official controller for each one he builds to get the interface hardware. It just becomes part of the BOM cost.

Then he just has to replace the buttons and joysticks with ones that work for his end-users.

The best part about that team revealing this, was hearing NPR / CNN / BBC and others say Goatse in their broadcasts. Priceless!