Yup. Because they lease the track, it's a rather common occurrence for an Amtrak train to get parked on a spur and wait until the owning railway runs their own traffic through and decides they can go back to the mainline.
I said the right to profit (actually, I worded it a bit badly, it's the right to attempt to profit) from one's work is a natural right.
I agree completely. Everyone has a right to earn a living. Artists can be commissioned to create works, or paid a wage to do so regularly. As a software developer, I create "intellectual property" on a daily basis, and I have just as much at stake in the copyright debate as any writer, musician, or filmmaker.
Additionally, you said that this wasn't a natural right in the US.
I was speaking of the right for a creator to assert exclusive control of his creations, which is a right that doesn't exist in the US absent the explicit grant of such in the Copyright Clause, and even then it exists only for a limited time. As regards "natural rights" in general - they're a nice thing to consider abstractly. Practically there really is no such thing. Tell the bear that's mauling you that you have a "natural right" to live. Tell the police that wrongly arrested you that you have a "natural right" to freedom. Tell the burglar that emptied your house that you have a "natural right" to not be stolen from. Your rights are defined by what you can enforce, nothing more. Beyond that, what anyone considers "rights" are just a statement of how they feel the world should work, and to what degree society agrees with them and is willing to protect that viewpoint. Natural rights aren't recorded in some timeless book that everyone agrees on and adheres to.
Most Americans I know are so lazy they'll circle the parking lot for minutes looking for a place in the first few rows instead of (*gasp*) walk from the far side, or even the middle of the lot.
I never figured that one out. Aside from it taking less time to park and walk, I often will park a little farther out in the lot just to minimize the odds of someone attempting to put their car in any of the space currently occupied by my own.
My wife and I took a night train from Paris to Munich a few years back. Price was reasonable, beds were comfortable, had a shower in the room, and the incomparable Herr Hoeppner took great care of us and brought orange juice and coffee in the morning shortly before we arrived at our destination.
A+++++ Would ride again. The only downside was having to board at Gare de l'Est, which is a frigging hole with the warm scent of urine provided for no extra charge.
There needs to be someway to make money off of content that the vast majority of users will accept, while at the same time adequately compensating the artists
What defines "adequately"? There are plenty of means of compensating artists that already exist - patronage, attending concerts, buying associated merchandise (t-shirts, hats, etc.). The major problem is simply that artistic content simply isn't perceived to have the same value as more useful stuff.
I'm a software developer, and have been for the past 20+ years. I'm also a reasonably talented musician that plays several instruments, has worked professionally as a pit musician for a number of theaters over the years, and has worked with the local symphony orchestra on some projects. Additionally, I had a book published several years ago (an instructional book published through a real publisher, not a vanity press) that has since gone out of print. I think I have just as much claim to the term "artist" as any one else that has that creative urge. But, with all that other stuff I can do (and enjoy doing a LOT more), I still look to software development to pay the bills. Even if I was a pit musician in the best theaters on Broadway or the West End, or chose to release my compositions to the world at large, odds are that society would value my work as a developer a lot more. That's a hard fact that the artists of the world need to understand. Certainly there are a few artists that will make it big and be able to retire from their earnings as an artist, but there are many, many more who will have to find other means to support themselves.
Artists aren't special and deserving of unconditional support just because they create something.
"Use" taxation is on the basis that you use that thing you brought across state lines.
The important part is that the item has to *cross state lines*, as use taxes aren't levied on items bought within the state. Consequently, it's still a sales tax on items purchased out of state, regardless of what they want to call it. This is made even more clear by those states that levy only the difference when sales tax has already been paid to another state, but at a lower rate.
It's typical that our federal government plays the interstate commerce card when it benefits them, but totally ignores it when it doesn't.
The F-117 looked like nothing built on Earth previously
It has a fuselage, two clearly discernable swept wings, and a pair of vertical stabilizers, and from the ground looks like an airplane, especially when seen only in silhouette. The B-2 is a little bit more out of the ordinary, but not substantially different in appearance than the B-49 that was flying in the *1940's*, and people have known what turbine engines sound like for just as long.
I suppose a few truly clueless people might have called them in as UFOs, but even today truly clueless people continue to call in Venus as a UFO, even though man has had untold thousands of years to get used to the idea of it occasionally being visible in the evening/morning sky.
No, all three of the aircraft you've described are easily recognized as aircraft, and would have easily been recognized as aircraft even in the 1950's.
Obsessed? No. I spent several years working for one of the largest laser system integrators in the world, which necessarily put me in contact with a lot of machines of various shapes and sizes that used industrial lasers for one thing or another, usually in a factory environment.
I wouldn't think so - I think all of the CCS Mk1 boats have since been upgraded, and CCS Mk2/BSY-1/BSY-2 all use UYK-43s with the exception of a very few BSY-1 systems that I'm sure have since been upgraded. The 43 is totally solid-state IIRC. It's been 15 years since I was there, and as I mentioned I never was active duty, so I wouldn't take my word as gospel.
I wasn't active duty - I worked in the submarine combat systems group of a Navy contractor, and was mostly concerned with supporting the old CCS Mk1 and BSY-1 fire control systems. CCS Mk2 was starting to become the hot new thing around the time I left the company.
Dunno what they're using on the newer boats, but I got a kick out of the fact the UYK-7s on the older 637/688 boats actually had core memory. "Core" as in "magnets around wires". Only place I've actually seen it.
Then again, if you do fix it, you get to be the hero.
Which only means all the above parties quit bitching at you. No financial reward or other recognition of your effort should be expected, at least in my experience.
And don't forget those occasions when you're given a spec, but no hardware or simulation modules to actually test the code with the client's environment. Making your system work with the client's custom line controller pretty much guarantees you're going to be dragging your laptop, dev tools, and a notebook with you, and leaving the customer with, "all my testing seems to indicate everything's working properly, but here's my contact info if you have any issues".
- Spending two weeks doing Y2K updates to four laser markers at a tool factory in 90+ degree heat, grimy, filthy conditions, and with management breathing down my back since they demanded all four machines be done at once, which totally shut the factory down. They backed off a bit when they saw that happen. Oh, no chairs too.
- Spending four days doing the same Y2K update on two laser markers in a bearing factory. It was winter so the heat wasn't bad, but you could literally see the kerosene mist in the air, and it took a few days for it to work itself out of my pores to where I couldn't smell it anymore. I felt so bad for the poor people that had to sit near me on the plane home. No chairs there either.
- Several clean-room environments in chip fabs when writing on-site updates to the laser machines that correct mask defects. I hate the suits, and depending on where in the fab you are, you might be subjected to the most God-awful yellow light for extended periods of time. Also, it never fails - you spend 15 minutes getting suited up, walking through the air showers, up however many flights of stairs, and through other protective measures, then right as you sign in to get into the protected area of the fab, you realize you have to pee and the nearest bathroom is where you suited up.
I'd much rather work on an extremely buggy system that's well-documented and at least shows signs of cognitive thought being applied to the code, than to have to add stuff to totally bug-free code that looks like a bomb went off in someone's text editor.
I usually get the best of both worlds - tons of bugs, and no fricking clue as to how the code was *intended* to work, as opposed to how it *does* work.
Slashdot Mirror
Not until it gets into France, anyway. ;-)
And even then you're getting dropped off in Sanford, which leaves you with another half-hour of driving to get to Orlando itself.
Yup. Because they lease the track, it's a rather common occurrence for an Amtrak train to get parked on a spur and wait until the owning railway runs their own traffic through and decides they can go back to the mainline.
I said the right to profit (actually, I worded it a bit badly, it's the right to attempt to profit) from one's work is a natural right.
I agree completely. Everyone has a right to earn a living. Artists can be commissioned to create works, or paid a wage to do so regularly. As a software developer, I create "intellectual property" on a daily basis, and I have just as much at stake in the copyright debate as any writer, musician, or filmmaker.
Additionally, you said that this wasn't a natural right in the US.
I was speaking of the right for a creator to assert exclusive control of his creations, which is a right that doesn't exist in the US absent the explicit grant of such in the Copyright Clause, and even then it exists only for a limited time. As regards "natural rights" in general - they're a nice thing to consider abstractly. Practically there really is no such thing. Tell the bear that's mauling you that you have a "natural right" to live. Tell the police that wrongly arrested you that you have a "natural right" to freedom. Tell the burglar that emptied your house that you have a "natural right" to not be stolen from. Your rights are defined by what you can enforce, nothing more. Beyond that, what anyone considers "rights" are just a statement of how they feel the world should work, and to what degree society agrees with them and is willing to protect that viewpoint. Natural rights aren't recorded in some timeless book that everyone agrees on and adheres to.
Most Americans I know are so lazy they'll circle the parking lot for minutes looking for a place in the first few rows instead of (*gasp*) walk from the far side, or even the middle of the lot.
I never figured that one out. Aside from it taking less time to park and walk, I often will park a little farther out in the lot just to minimize the odds of someone attempting to put their car in any of the space currently occupied by my own.
My wife and I took a night train from Paris to Munich a few years back. Price was reasonable, beds were comfortable, had a shower in the room, and the incomparable Herr Hoeppner took great care of us and brought orange juice and coffee in the morning shortly before we arrived at our destination.
A+++++ Would ride again. The only downside was having to board at Gare de l'Est, which is a frigging hole with the warm scent of urine provided for no extra charge.
I understand what a natural right is. I don't believe copyright qualifies as such, and US law is in agreement with my opinion.
This artist lives by working for a living.
It's a natural right, much like your right to not be murdered. I don't have to derive it from anything, it is.
Not in the United States.
There needs to be someway to make money off of content that the vast majority of users will accept, while at the same time adequately compensating the artists
What defines "adequately"? There are plenty of means of compensating artists that already exist - patronage, attending concerts, buying associated merchandise (t-shirts, hats, etc.). The major problem is simply that artistic content simply isn't perceived to have the same value as more useful stuff.
I'm a software developer, and have been for the past 20+ years. I'm also a reasonably talented musician that plays several instruments, has worked professionally as a pit musician for a number of theaters over the years, and has worked with the local symphony orchestra on some projects. Additionally, I had a book published several years ago (an instructional book published through a real publisher, not a vanity press) that has since gone out of print. I think I have just as much claim to the term "artist" as any one else that has that creative urge. But, with all that other stuff I can do (and enjoy doing a LOT more), I still look to software development to pay the bills. Even if I was a pit musician in the best theaters on Broadway or the West End, or chose to release my compositions to the world at large, odds are that society would value my work as a developer a lot more. That's a hard fact that the artists of the world need to understand. Certainly there are a few artists that will make it big and be able to retire from their earnings as an artist, but there are many, many more who will have to find other means to support themselves.
Artists aren't special and deserving of unconditional support just because they create something.
"Use" taxation is on the basis that you use that thing you brought across state lines.
The important part is that the item has to *cross state lines*, as use taxes aren't levied on items bought within the state. Consequently, it's still a sales tax on items purchased out of state, regardless of what they want to call it. This is made even more clear by those states that levy only the difference when sales tax has already been paid to another state, but at a lower rate.
It's typical that our federal government plays the interstate commerce card when it benefits them, but totally ignores it when it doesn't.
The F-117 looked like nothing built on Earth previously
It has a fuselage, two clearly discernable swept wings, and a pair of vertical stabilizers, and from the ground looks like an airplane, especially when seen only in silhouette. The B-2 is a little bit more out of the ordinary, but not substantially different in appearance than the B-49 that was flying in the *1940's*, and people have known what turbine engines sound like for just as long.
I suppose a few truly clueless people might have called them in as UFOs, but even today truly clueless people continue to call in Venus as a UFO, even though man has had untold thousands of years to get used to the idea of it occasionally being visible in the evening/morning sky.
No, all three of the aircraft you've described are easily recognized as aircraft, and would have easily been recognized as aircraft even in the 1950's.
Obsessed? No. I spent several years working for one of the largest laser system integrators in the world, which necessarily put me in contact with a lot of machines of various shapes and sizes that used industrial lasers for one thing or another, usually in a factory environment.
I'll bet it was reliable as hell in between PMs though. :-D
Yes, there is that. I'd repressed that part.
I wonder if any of them still have UYK-7s?
I wouldn't think so - I think all of the CCS Mk1 boats have since been upgraded, and CCS Mk2/BSY-1/BSY-2 all use UYK-43s with the exception of a very few BSY-1 systems that I'm sure have since been upgraded. The 43 is totally solid-state IIRC. It's been 15 years since I was there, and as I mentioned I never was active duty, so I wouldn't take my word as gospel.
Hehe - and like the kids would say, "well, I didn't have to go THEN!"
:-)
And thanks to all that pointed out that one should really hit "preview" one last time before submitting. The airplane did in fact have seats.
Not really - had to look it up. :-)
I wasn't active duty - I worked in the submarine combat systems group of a Navy contractor, and was mostly concerned with supporting the old CCS Mk1 and BSY-1 fire control systems. CCS Mk2 was starting to become the hot new thing around the time I left the company.
Dunno what they're using on the newer boats, but I got a kick out of the fact the UYK-7s on the older 637/688 boats actually had core memory. "Core" as in "magnets around wires". Only place I've actually seen it.
Then again, if you do fix it, you get to be the hero.
Which only means all the above parties quit bitching at you. No financial reward or other recognition of your effort should be expected, at least in my experience.
And don't forget those occasions when you're given a spec, but no hardware or simulation modules to actually test the code with the client's environment. Making your system work with the client's custom line controller pretty much guarantees you're going to be dragging your laptop, dev tools, and a notebook with you, and leaving the customer with, "all my testing seems to indicate everything's working properly, but here's my contact info if you have any issues".
My faves:
- Spending two weeks doing Y2K updates to four laser markers at a tool factory in 90+ degree heat, grimy, filthy conditions, and with management breathing down my back since they demanded all four machines be done at once, which totally shut the factory down. They backed off a bit when they saw that happen. Oh, no chairs too.
- Spending four days doing the same Y2K update on two laser markers in a bearing factory. It was winter so the heat wasn't bad, but you could literally see the kerosene mist in the air, and it took a few days for it to work itself out of my pores to where I couldn't smell it anymore. I felt so bad for the poor people that had to sit near me on the plane home. No chairs there either.
- Several clean-room environments in chip fabs when writing on-site updates to the laser machines that correct mask defects. I hate the suits, and depending on where in the fab you are, you might be subjected to the most God-awful yellow light for extended periods of time. Also, it never fails - you spend 15 minutes getting suited up, walking through the air showers, up however many flights of stairs, and through other protective measures, then right as you sign in to get into the protected area of the fab, you realize you have to pee and the nearest bathroom is where you suited up.
Better mac & cheese than the feared gazebo.
I'd much rather work on an extremely buggy system that's well-documented and at least shows signs of cognitive thought being applied to the code, than to have to add stuff to totally bug-free code that looks like a bomb went off in someone's text editor.
I usually get the best of both worlds - tons of bugs, and no fricking clue as to how the code was *intended* to work, as opposed to how it *does* work.