
Here's a Slashdot story from 2001 wherein I recount my experience with having to power on each of my devices before boarding a flight:
http://news.slashdot.org/story...
Technically, that wasn't even the TSA since that agency didn't exist until a few weeks later.
Check out the Videogame Connector Pinouts at Pinouts.ru. Many of them include suggestions for connecting them directly to a PC.
You could also get something like the Ultimarc U-HID or I-PAC. Many MAME users have been using these for years to adapt the controls in their arcade cabinets to work with PCs. You'll have to wire up a connector to let you plug in whatever kind of joystick you want but the flexibility means you can use it with several different controller types.
I suggest you go reread that booklet. Andersen Consulting completed its spin-off from Arthur Andersen in mid-2000 after a two-year legal battle. The Accenture name became official later that year (I happen to have a copy of both their original Indian Certificate of Incorporation and their "Fresh Certificate of Incorporation Consequent on Change of Name" which is dated December 5th, 2000). The Enron scandal surfaced in October 2001, 3 years after Accenture began its separation from Arthur Andersen.
The only point of your post that I take issue with is the first part. H1B resources are SUPPOSED to be paid the same as an American worker would be paid and this is certainly the case for many of them. I'm an American currently working in India and India has a similar rule for granting employment visas.
Since I've been here, however, I've heard many stories about people who have been "hired" by contract firms who sponsor them for an H1B visa. I put "hired" in quotation marks because the employees actually pay the contract firm for the privilege. They are told that it's much easier for them to seek citizenship or, at least, another employer who will take over their H1B visa sponsorship once they're in the US.
Prof: So the American government went to IBM to come up with a data encryption standard and they came up with ... Student: EBCDIC!"