Equifax CEO hired a music major as the company's chief security officer - <AUTHOR> http://www.marketwatch.com/story/equifax-ceo-hired-a-music-major-as-the-companys-chief-security-officer-2017-09-15 <comment><USER2> IMO being a music major isn't the story here, having no related experience/knowledge is. But that doesn't get clicks quite as well.

One of the best engineers I've ever met had a bachelors in Psychology. Another was a highschool dropout. The difference though was that those folks spent a ton of time learning everything they could, and continually improved.

Having a music major isn't a bad thing at all. Having no relevant experience is a much larger concern for me.

I'd go as far as saying that this headline is harmful. It perpetuates the "only people with CS degrees can program/security/architect", which isn't true at all. We shouldn't be shaming people who come from another walk of life. More power to those who didn't get a traditional CS degree and still kick ass :)

<comment><USER3> I started out majoring in music. I switched to studying CS and math because career prospects looked better. It was also easier.

<comment><USER4> Same...I think it's sad that people who theoretically know how to 'code' (writing music, converting music notation into sounds) and spend thousands of hours on a rigorous practice are cast as being useless to the modern workforce.

I feel like music majors have to be very technical and studious...something that really does transfer well to any other field if they put their mind to it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm no fan of Equifax, but some of the most talented engineers I've worked with have been music majors, musician, etc. It has nothing to do with whether she is qualified or not for the job.

The real story here is how Marketwatch (and HN, and Reddit, and Twitter, etc) is coming to the conclusion that she is unqualified simply by looking at her LinkedIn profile. I know many security professionals that have no LinkedIn profile, or list very barebones information on it because they see themselves as targets for spear phishing and see no need to give potential attackers any easy ammunition.

From looking at her LinkedIn profile ([https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-m-93069a/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-m-93069a/)), it looks like she also follows this practice. If you look at her previous positions they are listed simply as "Professional".

TL;DR She may indeed be unqualified, but there is no way to determine that only from her LinkedIn profile.

</comment><comment><USER6> This is bullshit.

Alice Goldfuss, SRE at github: "reddit is mocking the Equifax CISO for having a music degree, meanwhile I know no one in infosec with a CS one" [https://twitter.com/alicegoldfuss/status/908430394529259520](https://twitter.com/alicegoldfuss/status/908430394529259520)

<comment><USER7> Why should the word of a SRE at a small company be the gospel at this?

When I was working at Cisco pretty much all InfoSec people I know had a technical degree, from CS to EE to sometimes Mathematics.

I'm sure there are some outliers, but saying "no infosec people have degree in CS" is just plain ridiculous.

<comment><USER8> > "no infosec people have degree in CS"

You stretched that tweet pretty far. It's clearly nothing more than an anecdotal counterexample. I'm not sure how your paraphrasing quote ended up becoming such a sweeping generalization.

<comment><USER9> OP knows it's an anecdote. They are questioning the value of an anecdote from someone in a small company when the anecdote is about claiming to know enough people belonging to a certain category.

<comment><USER6> But github is very popular in the tech community. You'd think she would have met some infosec people with relevant degrees if they were common.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't think people are dissing her for having a music degree. They are dissing her for apparently having no infosec experience (an accusation further intensified by her education also not being in a technical field). Whether that is true or not can be investigated. But saying that the row is about her having a music degree is a slight misrepresentation.

<comment><USER10> I was pretty sure it was true (that she had no experience at all) after listening to the first two or three minutes of the video interviews that were available here[1], but apparently they don't want anyone to see interviews with the CISO from before the breach. I have never seen anybody say cloud so many times in two minutes.

By the end of the interview, I felt sorry for her. I have no idea if she had relevant experience or not, she just sounded like someone who has been conditioned to argue that delays in new development are unacceptable, and that the cloud is inevitable, and if it costs more to do it right then you'll have to make do with less, and cetera and so forth.

I'm not terribly shocked that they've taken down these interviews, but I am very sorry I didn't save a copy when I found them. They were still available for viewing as of 12:31pm Eastern Time on Sept 10, and there are transcripts that you can find following the links in the article, which has been updated to note the videos were scrubbed from the internet.

Serious question, is there any way this might actually count as destroying evidence?

[1]: [https://www.hollywoodlanews.com/equifax-chief-security- offic...](https://www.hollywoodlanews.com/equifax-chief-security-officer/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I would really like to post the link to video interviews with Susan Mauldin (they made quite an impression on me) but they were deleted apparently only hours after I watched them.

[https://www.hollywoodlanews.com/equifax-chief-security- offic...](https://www.hollywoodlanews.com/equifax-chief-security-officer/)

There is a transcript that you can still read at:

[http://archive.is/6M8mg](http://archive.is/6M8mg)

</comment><comment><USER11> There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a music degree then going into tech. I have a CS degree but I worked with a lot of talented and smart individuals who either didn't finish college.

That is true in general, however in this case we know there was a major breach maybe one of the biggest ones, now all of the sudden having a Music degree _and_ seemingly not having relevant infosec experience doesn't look too good.

Had there been no breach, fine, nobody would have noticed and everyone would have given the benefit of the doubt, even say "How nice, they could pivot from a different degree etc."

Moreover what looks shady is that they changed their last first name to M. instead Mauldin in LinkedIn profile. Their interviews have been taken down etc. If they had experience and this was just an unfortunate example, they would have stood by and defended and explained what happened. The weasily hiding looks shady like they are hiding their incompetence.

</comment><comment><USER12> I know numerous people whose technical skills I highly respect that have a degree in all kinds of things, or, indeed, nothing.

<comment><USER13> Are any of them the Chief Security Officer of a $17.5B company?

<comment><USER14> so a college degree in Computer Science, where they recycle old final exams would have save the day? How many degree holders can even go back and pass the final exams, cramming knowledge for a test is not an indicator for security competence

<comment><USER15> That's a pretty silly strawman to build up and then tear down.

That's tantamount to saying an engineering degree is just a piece of paper. Of course it implies a lot more.

<comment><USER16> Many people with a CS degree are clueless about security. It's a relatively new discipline.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is the wrong thing to focus on. The situation we're in isn't a result of where this person was educated. The fact that they had a lack of professional experience required to demand a standard of security that would prevent this type of problem is the only thing I think worth discussing here.

I dropped out of school as soon as I realized I could make 50k/year doing IT work vs _paying_ 50k a year to a school whose curriculum was from the stone age. I fully endorse education of all forms but our current model for educating the next generation of workforce is broken but I digress.

</comment><comment><USER18> I'm kinda amazed this is now such a big story. It was picked up on Reddit 4 days ago.

The story is more complicated than this [http://greyenlightenment.com/equifax- hack-analysis/](http://greyenlightenment.com/equifax-hack-analysis/)

1\. she was hired in 2013. Butting against equifax stock on this knowledge would have resulted in a large loss.

2\. The odds of Equifax (or any company) being hacked are high if hackers are determined enough. It Bitcoin exchanges, ICOs, and online wallets, which are run by STEM people, find it very hard to stop hackers, what does that say about most websites in general.

<comment><USER19> agreed but the hack was a result of credentials being "admin/password"

<comment><USER16> How many layers of management should have caught that first? It shouldn't matter whether someone graduated from third grade when it comes to something that simple.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Hey! I'm an engineer that has a major in music! I take offense to this headline.

No, I don't think I'm currently qualified to be CSO anywhere - but I don't think it's a stretch that a music major could be.

<comment><USER21> Well you could also argue that cs major would take offense at that fact that all the years of his education in the relavant field are effectively useless if you would not consider what education the candidate has while securing the job.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> A lot of comments here are saying education is irrelevant.. It is very much relevant , you don't want a self taught doctor . All other professional fields such as lawyers, doctors, accountants have highly regulated practice where qualifications are very important, expect engineering.

It should not be acceptable to have dam built by a self taught engineer, or the privacy of 100 million ppl is safe guarded by music major even she had "relevant experience" there is a reason education and certification exist

</comment><comment><USER22> The problem is definitely not the music degree. As many have said there are many brilliant technical folks who have music degrees.

The problem is the low quality hiring of executives. This seems to plague almost every large company out there. These "executive level" people are just part of some inner circle and know somebody who knows somebody. They might look good on paper. The reality is that boards and CEOs have too little knowledge of the specifics of their business and make chicken-shit hires.

</comment><comment><USER23> She did have an MBA, so maybe that degree should be a sign of incompetence.

Instead of asking the Infosec community for their thoughts this journalist is showing he is already out of his depth.

</comment><comment><USER24> Red Herring to irrelevant what she majored in in college. C level employees are not in the weeds or frontline when it comes to security anyway. At worst, she could be blamed for not having the correct vision or grasping the scope of importance securing this data required. As long as she hired and trusted the right people that is all that really matters. A breach like this is more than just one persons fault...

<comment><USER16> I'm shocked that so many people fail to realize this is a red herring. This is more shocking to me than the story itself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I am as mad as anyone about the Equifax breach but this story is bs. A degree or lack thereof has nothing to do with ones technical competence. The best programmer I've ever met was self taught. The worst had a masters degree.

<comment><USER21> Outliers exist obviously. Why Education is irrelevant in engineering would you want a self taught doctor operating on you ? Why are you okay with unqualified person handling privacy if 150 million people ?

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Well, we can all argue one way or another about how relevant a CS degree would have been. The fact though that the profile was altered and other data deleted remains highly suspicious, if true.

<comment><USER10> It is super fishy that they got rid of every copy of video interviews with Susan Mauldin right as they were being reported on. I watched the interviews before they got erased and I was shocked that they were ever aired, I'm sure the transcript does not convey as much about how little this person seems to know for being the person in charge of the security of every person's credit files who has credit in the US.

I don't like to see people get shit on (and she looked like a person who was trying hard to do a good job,) but she also looked like a person who was put in that position because someone with a lot of money knew that doing security right would be expensive, and she would be someone to comply.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Headlines like these are why companies list relevant college degrees as job requirements.

</comment><comment><USER28> Click bait headline.

</comment><comment><USER10> And now this post has been deleted from the HN front page... Edit: they've unmarked it

<comment><USER29> I think what's likely is that the articles are being flagged by HN members (and possibly down weighted by mods) as not something that can be constructively discussed on HN. If you've looked at the discussions, they've produced far more heat than light.

As for being a dupe, it is in the sense that the same topic has been introduced multiple times:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=equifax%20music&sort=byPopular...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=equifax%20music&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

<comment><USER10> It's marked as "dupe"

Edit: it was unmarked, thank you Scott

<comment><USER30> We've unmarked this one as a duplicate (of [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15258510](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15258510)). Both stories have received many flags by users, perhaps because the indignation to insight ratio is off.

<comment><USER10> The other post wasn't really a story, it was a link to her profile on LinkedIn. I can see why there wouldn't be much to discuss, and why most people probably wouldn't want to upvote that. (Especially given the information about how that page has been altered, that you can find in the article that is the subject of this posting.)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Elros: P2P Social Publishing Protocol – Tech Censorship Revolution? - <AUTHOR> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1604857736/elros-p2p-social-publishing-protocol/?ref=kicktraq <comment><AUTHOR> Could this be the tech-censorship killer?

Elros describes itself as "a content distribution protocol that places control solely in the hands of the publisher. Content publishers directly curate and provide feeds of content to their subscribers. All clients are anonymized to ensure privacy and prevent censorship by infrastructure providers. A peer-to- peer network of file distribution provides redundancy and efficiency. Symmetric encryption of content gives an extensible mechanism for natively integrated monetization and selective distribution."

It would appear to me that if this project receives its funding goal and raises capital, we will be opening Pandora's Box towards freedom of speech for the eternal digital age. It seems to not just be disrupting the technologies of Facebook or Twitter but also seems to try and compete with paywall platforms like Gumroad and Patreon. This could be something very big, although tried before in different fragmented ways, something like this has never been deployed in one piece. Where social publishing, micro-blogging, and video content seeding is alive in one platform.

I'm taking the red pill on this one! What do you guys think?</comment>


8-Bit Generation Documentary - <AUTHOR> http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/3800 <comment><USER2> I hope this gets released. I worked for Eugene Jarvis (indirectly) and certainly knew and appreciated a lot of the others in these snippets.

These were titans that saw an entire industry as it could be as opposed to the "entrepreneurs" we see now that stand on the shoulders of giants and still manage to only reach their navels.

<comment><USER3> > _These were titans that saw an entire industry as it could be as opposed to > the "entrepreneurs" we see now that stand on the shoulders of giants and > still manage to only reach their navels._

Do you really believe that, or are you just being melancholic? Every age has their visionary genuis enterpreneurs en the small-scale incremental-evolution enterpreneurs. The "enterpreneurs we see now" include people like Jason Fried, Elon Musk and Daniel Ek. Yeah, and founders of the get-a-notification-when- someone-unfollows-me-on-Twitter-app businesses, but people like that were around in the eighties too - you just haven't heard of them.

And, really, there's nothing wrong with either.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As mentioned in the article, the music is well worth checking out for this documentary (<http://zoeblade.bandcamp.com/album/8-bit-generation>). Lets hope a completed film gets released.

<comment><USER5> Thank you!

<comment><USER6> Hey! I love your music! Don't suppose you have any idea what's going on with this doco?

<comment><USER5> Thanks! I'm afraid I don't really know much more than anyone else here. I could tell you anything you'd like to know about the soundtrack itself, but as far as the rest of the film goes, I pretty much have just the trailers and archive of the website to go on, the same as everyone else. Sorry I couldn't be of more help!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The last bit of news anyone has been able to find is related to a screening in June 2012: <https://www.facebook.com/events/407114895977032/>

</comment><comment><USER8> Just checking out the trailers, it actually pains me to think that this series might never see the light of release. Wow.

<comment><USER9> Agreed. would happily put up money on kickstarter to see this funded to the end.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> They only finished making the first episode of six hours and there were a dozen hours filmed/planned?

First episode is called "Insert Coin" _It's the premiere of the first episode (the only one which is complete up to now) 45 min_ Shown Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 8pm

So they never finished it. Maybe ran out of money to produce it? Definitely out of time by Feb 2012

World Premiere: Screening of the first episode "Insert Coin" of the brand new documentary, 8-Bit Generation. Playing the Revolution" with interviews with veterans of the game industry (A Junk Food & BasicNet production / Written by Tomaso Walliser Lorenzo Faggi / Directed by Davide Agosta / Special consultants Massimo Temporelli, Bruno Grampa and Cecilia Botta).

       8bit Generation documentary series out in February 2012

       Junk Food, a "content for humans" production company, proudly announces 8bit Generation.

       This forthcoming 12 hours documentary series is divided in two main stories covering the birth of the personal computer and videogame era: each story will be 6 hours and 6 episodes long, starting from the mid 70's all the way through the 80's and the first 16bit machines.

       With something like 50 (and more to be added) original and unreleased interviews to the fathers of the modern world, 8bit Generation is going to be, by far, the most complete, accurate and the biggest video product on retro gaming and retro computing for years to come.

       Interviews feature Apple founder Steve Wozniak, Commodore founder Jack Tramiel, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, tv game inventor Ralph Baer and many others.

       8bit Generation is going to be released worldwide February 8th 2012 in DVD/BD format and in 5 (plus 1) different packages.

       Find out more information and news and watch video trailers at www.8bitgeneration.info where you can also pre order your favorite copy.  - Tomaso Walliser Junk Food C.E.O.

After digging around a bit, I found one of his domains still working lostinfashion.it and it was renewed to 2013 recently - check the whois for email and phone number

You can also get the "who we are" page to work in the archive if you change the date [http://web- beta.archive.org/web/20111128013424/http://www.8b...](http://web- beta.archive.org/web/20111128013424/http://www.8bitgeneration.info/who)

All sorts of leads on the "who we are" page.

<comment><USER11> I'm fairly certain the director has a LinkedIn profile that's updated. (There are a few with the same name that aren't.) There's also a Twitter account with that name, but it's been inactive for about a year. Any "web sleuth" with a Linked In paid membership could toss him an email if they were so inclined.

I've asked two people on Twitter if they were the writers listed on the Facebook ad. One Lorenzo Faggi replied no. Others with that name are rather inactive. I'm still waiting on the presumed Tomaso Walliser to answer.

I'd love to know just how many were done, what became of them, and if they're no longer interested in pursuing the project, if they would post the footage they did film for the public to tinker with.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Woz: "What about Apple Records"

Jobs: "They are a record company, we are a computer company"

Woz: "That all it takes?"

Jobs: "Yeah"

Someone should take a Delorean to 88, and play that bit to Steve a few years back... I think he forgot.

<comment><USER13> We'd first need to somehow revive him before we can take him on a Delorean ride.

<comment><USER14> I don't think anyone suggested taking him along, but even so you could take make pitstop in 2009 and pick him up if need be.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Anyone interested in the early days of personal computers should check out Triumph of the Nerds. It's many of the same people but interviewed 16 years ago. Awesome stuff.

First Episode on YouTube: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFL9IyJ_qHk>

Wikipedia Page: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Nerds>

</comment><comment><USER16> I do hope Jason's able to find the crew that was working on this. Jason does great work and I'd love to see their powers combined.

</comment><comment><USER17> very cool. i'd throw some money at it if it appeared on kickstarter.

</comment><comment><USER18> This looks totally up my alley. I would have gladly paid for this had it been available. Heck I just dropped some cash on the soundtrack album (and I seldom pay for music) and its wonderful. Hopefully this hitting HN and the resulting websites will get enough attention to finish this off.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I would gladly help fund this if money is at all an issue - based on that trailer I think a lot of people would do the same.

</comment><comment><USER19> Does anybody know the name of the song in the first trailer?

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_mnMRAcKDMw#)!

I have checked the page of Zoe Blade, but do not think the music is featured on here list. thank you.

<comment><USER5> It's Ame Sakusan, from my (currently unreleased) album City Lights. You can stream it from <https://soundcloud.com/zoeblade/ame-sakusan> if you'd like.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Restricted access to this site by the uk porn filters. Is there something dodgy about it (before I make a telephone call to confirm I am over 18).

<comment><USER21> It's a legit site, and the linked post isn't dodgy at all. I'm guessing the domain is on the filter list because textfiles.com hosts an archive of all sorts of old BBS textfiles, some of which are probably erotic fiction (it's a gigantic archive that includes a bit of nearly anything).

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Want to see. I would pony some money up to help get it finished, whoever is behind it should put it up on Kickstarter.</comment>


Happy Hackers Love Whiteboard Wallpaper - <AUTHOR> http://www.tektura.com/pages/display_pattern.asp?Type=Range&PID=5&PAT=7

<comment><USER2> Love the concept, another whiteboard solution like ideaPaint where you just paint your whiteboard on any surface! <http://www.ideapaint.com/>

<comment><USER3> I painted a door next to my desk with Rust-oleum's Dry Erase paint. Worked quite nicely.

<comment><USER4> woah, thats awesome!

I wonder if it'll paint over magnetic paint

<comment><USER3> I imagine that it would.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> We use this stuff everywhere at youDevise and we love it. Magnetic too!

Someone else asked about it (<http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=2296267>) so I dug up the manufacturer.

</comment><comment><USER5> Most economical option is whiteboard decals which stick to the wall, and if you're crafty you can cut them to fit inside an oval-shaped picture frame or something like that. Removable and reusable, does not damage wall.

<http://www.wallcandyarts.com/shop/category.cfm/whiteboard>

All of this stuff is awesome though.

<comment><USER6> I'd say the most economical is picking up white tileboard or backerboard from a home improvement store. Roughly $10 for 3ft by 5ft.

<http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000679.php> [http://www.homedepot.com/Flooring-Flooring-Tools- Accessories...](http://www.homedepot.com/Flooring-Flooring-Tools-Accessories- Tile-Tools-Accessories-Backer- Board/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbngc/R-100170507/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053)

<comment><USER7> We have white backerboard in our office, and it doesn't properly dry erase at all. Instead of just kind of smudges over the entire area of the board eventually just making it a HUGE mess.

At that point we have to clean it off with commercial cleaning spray and paper towels. It works, but is definitely not ideal.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I use this in my home office - it sticks on any wall via static and wipes clean. It comes on a roll so you get 10 or 25 giant whiteboards which you can reuse. Absolutely love it.

<http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/></comment>


11,000 people bought an adaptor to give the new MBP the same features - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com.au/2016-macbook-pro-adapter-adds-hdmi-sd-card-usb-ports-2017-1?r=UK&IR=T <comment><USER2> Am i the only one who sees having a variety of ports as a good thing? I want an sd slot. I want multiple usb ports. I want an hdmi port, and having a vga port means one less adapter to carry on the plane. (Vga-only projectors are still out there in some classrooms.) I want separate mic and headphone jacks. And i couldnt care less if my netbook is 2mm thinner than someone elses.

I am reminded of a jeremy clarkson comment about elite cars. At the top end, you pay more to get literally less car. They strip out all the comfort features to save weight, resulting in sleek but near-unusable machines. Thats where apple is headed. I want more, not less connectivity from all my devices.

<comment><USER3> Apple is fighting a war between thinness and battery life. Brighter screens (which we'll see more of with HDR content becoming more mainstream) means more battery usage, which means Apple needs more battery to offset brighter screens, but Apple also wants each MacBook Pro iteration to be thinner (or just as thin) so that means sacrificing other components to make room for battery. They're doing the same thing to the iPhone.

<comment><USER2> If the screen is the value, mbs will eventually become nothing more than expensive media players. The mechanical keyboard will disappear next, replaced by wireless voice recognition. That should save a few watt-hours. It isnt like anyone might want to do some actual work on these things.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> So we're just voting up article-length ads for adapters now?

The new MacBook Pro only has USB-C ports. How many more articles pointing that out does HN need?

<comment><USER5> Did you know about that adapter before now?

Sure, the MBP only has two ports, but a lot of people seem to think it needs more and now more people know that there is an option. That particular adapter seems to fit the bill quite nicely.

Except for the lack of an audio port, apparently. That would have been very useful.

<comment><USER6> The laptop still has one built in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm getting a bit tired of these articles. Writing this on a new MBP I have not yet once needed an adapter. I'm sure at some point I will, but for the time being I am quite content with having a couple minimal USB-C ports and my headphone jack (keep off that one Apple!).

</comment><comment><USER8> Maybe they can add Magsafe to one of these and restore all the functionality missing?

Maybe Apple should do that?

Still can't believe these are selling as-is.

<comment><USER9> MagSafe is patented by Apple. HyperMac (the company behind this) used to sell the only external battery back that used a MagSafe cable. They got sued by Apple and stopped. I highly doubt they'd make that mistake twice.

<comment><USER10> Technically, there's another external battery that uses the MagSafe cable.

[http://mct-corp.com/store/index.php?product/page/1619/%22The...](http://mct- corp.com/store/index.php?product/page/1619/%22The+CEO%22+52.8AH+Ultimate+External+Battery)

<comment><USER9> At the time, they were the only one. I'm not surprised more have popped up since.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Anyone remember the original HyperDrive? Also a Mac add-on product. Mentioned here: [http://vintagemacmuseum.com/collection/rare- items/](http://vintagemacmuseum.com/collection/rare-items/)</comment>


Engineer rigs nerf gun to shoot himself when his stories are rejected in Pivotal - <AUTHOR> http://blog.evantahler.com/pivotal-tracker-phidgets-and-nerf-guns

<comment><USER2> We hung a rotating nerf missile launcher upside down from the ceiling that shoots folks who push broken tests to our staged for deploy branch (we use TeamCity). It's a work in progress and not a perfect system (we pair a lot so there's no guarantee someone is at their desk), but it's fun and gets people's attention.

Basically this, but automagical: [http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/ilaunch- thunder-iphone-controll...](http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/ilaunch-thunder- iphone-controlled-nerf-missile-launcher-video-07-12-2011/).

</comment><comment><USER3> Dodging bullets is one way to become more "agile".

</comment><comment><USER4> Slightly-OT nerf hack: The best nerf sniper weapon is 18 inches of 1/2" PVC tube and your lungs. ~30 yard range, and super-accurate.

<comment><USER5> Not sure how I feel about being sprayed with someone's spit...

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> That's fine if you're doing it to yourself. If management were to try to impose this, I would look for a job that has more regard for the dignity of employees.

<comment><USER7> I think if I were an employer, I would be looking for an employee with more of a sense of humor!

Seriously though, I really think the atmosphere in a work place is really important. I can't imagine working with people who wouldn't consider this a neat hack and overall quite funny.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> That's neat but it seems counter productive to me. I consider rejected Tracker stories to be a good thing. Better for a story to be rejected and provide feedback than to sit ignored or remain unfinished longer than necessary because the developer wants to avoid any possibility of rejection.

Now firing nerf weapons when CI builds fail makes much more sense.

</comment><comment><USER9> At my company we have a purple lacrosse helmet that is placed on one's desk - like a trophy of humorous shame - whenever someone breaks something. It's all in good fun and helps to lighten the mood when things happen. And they always do.

</comment><comment><USER10> Those phidget boards are pretty great. I bought some flashing lights from woot that we had kick on via the USB phidget interface anytime our pingdom checks failed. Now everyone hates the yellow lights :)

<comment><USER11> I swear I don't work for phidget corp, but they have some spiffy LED displays as well. Think scrolling signs letting you know the status of the latest CI build and the commiter...

<http://www.phidgets.com/products.php?category=15></comment></comment>


HTML5 Gamepad API - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/alaingilbert/GamepadJs

<comment><USER2> Another excellent gamepad library that seems to have more support: <https://github.com/sgraham/gamepad.js> Also a demo: <https://github.com/robhawkes/gamepad-demo>

</comment><comment><USER3> Another option: <http://johndavidfive.com/inpoot/>

Here's a demo video: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oBf-Rlm5_Y>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> If you have any comments/suggestions/critics/pull request... You're welcome ! :)

<comment><USER4> First idea that comes to mind:

It would be cool if there were an option to let the gamepad act as a mouse. There would be an initialization option, as well as a toggle function, called something like "controlMouse".

When activated, the control stick would be able to move the cursor around, and something intuitive like A=left click B=right click would work for the buttons.

You could call this toggle function from any sort of event listener, including a button press. So there would never be a situation where the user needed to switch back and forth between the mouse and the gamepad while on your page: You could just find some button or button combo not used by your game, make it the "mouse mode" toggle, and the user could switch back and forth seamlessly between "gamepad for game control" and "gamepad as mouse".

<comment><AUTHOR> That would be great ! Unfortunately, we cannot control/move the mouse in javascript (as far as I know). But, thanks for the suggestion !

<comment><USER4> Technically true, but you can fake it if it really strikes your fancy.

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4804068/move-mouse- cursor...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4804068/move-mouse-cursor- javascript)

<comment><AUTHOR> I've try to do some hacks today, and the best I can do is to create a fake cursor, and generate click on specific DOM elements.

It's impossible to fake a click on a precise screen position.

The only way I think that it can be done:

\- Create a dom selector that will gets all the links and inputs.

\- For each elements, verify if the pointer is inside (over) the element.

\- Then create a fake click for that element.

I just thought about it, I don't know if it could be viable/fast enough...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Related, can someone recommend a "it just works" gamepad (wired better than wireless) for use with OSX? Preferably attainable via Amazon?

<comment><AUTHOR> [http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Dual-Action-USB- Gamepad/dp/B0...](http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Dual-Action-USB- Gamepad/dp/B003NMMGUE)

This is my gamepad ! Works perfectly on osx.

<comment><USER6> I can also vouch for this gamepad- I've had one for over five years.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Wow fantastic!</comment>