Did he TAKE anything from the employer that he couldn't find OUTSIDE the company?
A lot of these employers think that JUST because YOU, a RESOURCE to them, come up with an idea, well, then "it's ours". That's ludicrous. Unfortunately, a LOT of states won't change these onerous, specious, unctuous, vicious codes because a lot of the attorneys are pro business and are backed by businesses.
The best thing is to disclose what you feel safe disclosing, and annotating that it is exempt from the company's reach. For things super sensitive, ask if they'll accept an escrow firm to hold a sealed, confidential list of inventions to which the employer is not permitted to SEE, but can see that the envelope is still secure, unopened, untampered with. They can see you deposit the envelope, seal it, secure it, and surrender it to escrow, but they are NOT privileged to know the contents.
Then, if you leave, and your idea is NOT directly related to the company, but they are jealous, and you refuse their courting for the idea, then they are just as enjoined from pursuing YOUR preexisting ideas (or new, escrowed ones not related to the company's CORE, EXISTING, FORESEEABLE and reasonable line of work, or extensions of your previous work, but still outside of the company's DAILY routine/activities), as you are enjoined from taking their customer list -- even if YOU ADDED TO their list by bringing in clients you met after hours at a bar or movie or theme park.
Maybe someone can stat umm start a business model around IP escrow-enjoining-the-current/prospective employer.
Also, someone needs to start a business model (with blood-thirsty lawyers) challenging every contacted employer to re-write their NC/IPD/NDA contracts and PROVE publicly (maybe privacy concerns of individual employees might be an issue here) that they are not an "asshole to work for".
A LOT of companies angle to get themselves on the list of "Top # Companies to Work For", but they are really assholes when it comes to NDS/NC/IP Disclosure.
It is ESPECIALLY unfair to expect a copier repair person trained by the military to not work for another copier repair company, after terming with an existing copier repair company, for 6 months or a year. If the employees core skills came from academics, an external trainer, etc, then if that terming employee can prove that his/her new employer is not going to significantly damage the previous employer, then TOUGH for the losing party.
Programmers and designers cannot be expected to go work for Payless or PetCo or McDonalds JUST because an NDA says tsk tsk...
"Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 16.3)." Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 17.8).)
This I thought of frm 2117-2127 last night (made some minor changes since...)
I thought of the 1970's Partridge Family's first theme track, I guess since "Song" is the NATO designation of the Chinese SS... Also, since I am Buddhist, believe in reincarnation, and wonder if I'd been in Admiral Zheng He's fleet in the 1400's, I am taking some linguistic liberties, partly as a jab at Westerners who poke fun at Asian articulation of English.
However, I suppose that MOST of the USN Sailors of today are too young to even APPRECIATE the Partridge Family tune...
Here goes:
A Little Ditty for the PLAN Plan
Hello Gurl (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) There's a "SONG" (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) And we're SINGIN'(Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) Come on, let's HAPPYYY!(Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
A WHOOLE lot a bubbling(Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) Is WHAT we could brining (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) So YEH, WE HAPPY!(Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
---
The U-uhh Es-sah Navy (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) They thinkin' that we STUpid (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) But we have a lotta secrets-- (stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) That we haven't yet SHOWN (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) ---
They HAVE a lotta weapon (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) And EXOTIC SUPER SENSOR (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) And the ELINT -- (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
But, NOW they wish they played (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! songs!) it that our cover was BLOWN! (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
-- -- -- Hello gurl! (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) there's our boat (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) So yah, WE SINGING! (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) And Yah, we HAPPY! (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) A BOATLOAD of flooding (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) Is what we could bringing -- (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
But we're not so sneaky (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
-- -- --
So you're CVs and you're CGs (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) are a trawlin' all the ocean-- (Ignore; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) looking for our ass sets that (stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!) you THOUGHT you had known-- (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
Now your beaming and your seethin' (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!) Soo your anchor's you're a heavin' (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!) And the sensor in the launcher (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!) Are about ABOUT TO BE THROWN (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!)
-- -- --
Hello Gurl, here's our DONG -- (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!) And We swingin' (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!) And now we're happeee! (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!) --
The Zheng He is the NEXT boat-- (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!) And tho he was a Eunuch,
"If you weren't a GM, why should we trust you about CIWS? Since you incorrectly believe that asbestos gloves (which were long gone from the Navy by 1984 and wouldn't have been required for ammo handling anyhow) and that respirators were required for handling DU rounds (they aren't)..."
No one says you HAVE to. But, I had seen the gun as the Army's Chaparral system when I was in high school. I'd seen it on ships. I'd seen the Enterprise fire it as a demonstration. My ship fired it before. I'd read whatEVER I could about it when I was in high school AND in the Navy.
And, get this: I'd found out (after I left the service) that some dipshit, dimwith politician on the East Coast lobbied HARD to get the gun downgraded so that HIS district constituents could get some of the.50 caliber Browning machine gun manufacturing work.
The CIWS was DESIGNED to take out:
- aircraft - high-speed missiles - small surface craft close aboard (that is, near to the ship, for you landlubbers) - swimmers/divers - DOLPHINS - mines close abort and in the deflection/depression limits of the gun
It also is capable of being fired from local control in case CIC is destroyed or the fire control radars/systems are casualties of fire, explosion, or attack.
The damned gun was software-downgraded so some asshole could get WORK for his district.
On TOP of that, drones are pricey, and the "Nav" was loath to destroy them. Instead we fired AT towed targets, either surface or air.
Oh, yeh, and
-- I was on-track to become ESWS-qualified (Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist), but I desisted for local political reasons because my chain of command pissed me off in my final 4 months aboard ship in the Gulf in '88, and on TOP of that,
-- I was quarterdeck Petty Officer of the Watch qualified as an E-3 on a ship of 380-420 people.
-- I was qualified duty roving patrol as an E-3, on my first ship which was capable of carrying nukes
-- I was helo cargo handler and chock-and-chains qualified
-- I qualified expert in small arms fire in high school on the match rifle team (not that I was interested in becoming a sniper), fired the M204, M-16, M-14, M-60,.50 cal, and endured CS gas without hacking and gagging like my JROTC classmates and my bootcamp shipmates; and in the service trained with 12-gages, M-14, etc
-- I was first-aid certified
-- I was the Captains PERSONAL PHONE TALKER on Flint (AE-32) for maneuvering and UNREP evolutions (I spoke or articulated better than the other deck ape seamen and was gung ho)
-- I was so gung ho that I was on the Security Alert Team and Backup Alert Forces initial reaction teams,
-- I was ALSO part of Flint's Flying Squad, our local initial strike team to combat fires, floods, damage, etc.
-- I was yeoman for my division in Deck
-- I blew away my 3rd and 2nd class fleet-wide exams for Radioman
-- I scored in the top 10% of some 800 Radiomen/women students (across three shifts; I was in class 862233 at San Diego), and earned the privilege to CHOOSE BY NAME my next duty station
-- Onboard JAM, I, as a radioman, started on my own seeking Quarterdeck POOW/OOD training, and my chief was pissed because he was afraid his princely RMs would have to stand QD watches on our undermanned ship
-- I pissed him off when I sought out quals for helm operator; again, pissed for the above
-- I knew both my ships inside out when aboard
-- I was the shipboard terrorist for Security Alerts because I infused a "sea change" in how the SAT/BAF had to cope with non-standard scenarios (I threw the Navy's shit out the window and made up my OWN scenarios, making officers late for 8 o'clock reports, miss movie call, make ships in the squadron nest wonder what in the hell was going on, and they had to reign me in cuz I caused them too much paperwork, time, and embarrassed the officers.
In all that RAMBLING, what I forgot to mention re: the first para was that USN bubbleheads were like, "We're being depth-charged and mines are being place around us for the fucking CIA???!!?"
So, not necessarily in DROVES, but certainly in high enough numbers, SSn sailors started using various illicit narcotics in an attempt to become discharged or transferred to shore, brig or not, but ANYWHERE except fighting the CIAs for them. They'd joined to fight sub-to-sub, militarily, as sailors, not errand boys for an organization that had a budget without a limit but didn't want to buy their OWN conveyance. Some sailors claimed homosexuality, and more.
Once the morale issues were addressed (more and better/interesting assignment rotations ashore; increased hazard/at-sea/sub duty pay, etc...), retention was dramatically improved. This coincided with my not receiving orders to Great Mistakes. It wasn't personal, or that my math grades were crappy (the navy has ways of educating people, even marginally-graduating individuals), it just was that retention must have also coincided with a sudden drop-off of the spy missions that were risking these $250M to $700M boats and their fancy gear.
Why a drop-off? It was conceded that for the amount of risk taken on by the Navy, all the CIA was getting was information about gambling, illegal/excurricular weapons deals, sexual exploits and other dubious acts of ranking Soviet officers. It just wasn't WORTH it anymore to imperil these boats when they were constantly ever complex, expensive, and politically monitored. You can't explain to the American public that they died doing their duty when cracked, emotionally distraught sailors return home, unable to tell their wives or parents WHY they are cracking up, going nuts, and so on. Presumably, the CIA resorted to humint, techint, sigint, and other -ints to get what they needed.
And STILL, those Masters of the Universe didn't see the Berlin Wall coming down!
Don't forget about the shareholders. In today's climate, restraint is generally expected more than ever. If some loose-cannon NCA or local Fleet Admiral/Commodore pops off some rounds based on non-agreeing ROE, a LOT of financial devastation will occur.
Don't forget:
Nortel AMD IBM microsoft HP Sony Fujitsu
And on and on and on have sites in China. So, where would the US retaliate first? Responding too soon would seem rash, as if lashing out. Waiting too long will just give rise to threat of sanctions, and maybe a "Failsafe"-like request for China to blow up one or two or six of their own ships as in-kind repayment.
Any US-initiated retaliation will so royally screw up the global economy the US will only expect to be the scourge of the planet. Shareholders want profit, sustained quarterly, and they DON'T want their fabs or R&D facilities blown up capriciously. A fab can cost BILLIONS to design, build and staff before even the first wafers are cut and shipped. Much like the new CVN/CVX for 2012 will cost some US $5.6 BILLION before first STEEL is even cut.
No, I suspect that local self-defense is allowed, but launching Tomahawks or Harpoons into the Yellow Sea/Taiwan Strait (take your pick) is verboten in the standing Rules of Engagement UNLESS clear, unequivocal PROOF of China's involvement can be found. Even so, MOST of the rest of the world despises the US, tho until the recent economic wreck of the dollar to Euro thingy, some countries now LOVE the US's weakened state as goods will cost less to buy in/from and maybe import TO the US.
Until/unless those high-tech companies start basing out of say, Dublin, Ireland, or Poland, or Portugal or someplace inexpensive but outSIDE of China, you can BET that they are constantly needling their congresspersons to keep the US military around Asia in check. Don't hit our factories. One stray Tomahawk, despite the celebrated precision electronics and striking during acceptance trials, and our market sector gains will be eroded beyond recovery.
There will probably be some InSea (Incidents at Sea) like with the US/Soviet ships playing chicken, scratching each other's paint jobs, hurling bag of dung, mooning each other, and flipping the bird, but those will be the unprofessional of the bunch topside. Fender-benders and "tag" will be occasional events in testing each other's fleet or unit professionalism for after-the-event, a measure of restraint. It will also allow each side to test each other and gives each side press to make the other side look bad.
China won't launch. An individual UNIT might, but even so, who wants to wreck a new, $2B boat early in the career, risk a bullet to the head, and face 88 or 120 angry souls upon reincarnation? That said, I WOULD expect a Chinese boat to fire if she detects cavitation datum bearing down on her. She won't know which threat axis is to be fired upon, so she will either go down gentlemanly-like, or fire what she can to be sure the world knows she didn't go down without a fight and probably didn't start the shit, either. But, only those analyzing the SOSUS data will know the truth of such an occurrence -- IF the sensors aren't snowed out or picking up too much ambiguous data.
Hmmm... It seems the USN keeps vacillating between CIWS or RAM or some canister-launched defensive thingy in combination with SLQ-32 (V), rubber ducky, and this and that.
I last read that the KDX-II and KDX-III had or will have RAM. Even the Australian Fleet Destroyer or Air superiority somesuch will not have GE's gatling gun. The pinion/mount will be there, but a box will shoot stinger-like AAW interceptors. I guess having 5 or 15 (seemingly not quickly reloadable) rounds run out in a saturation attack will render the ship to using any quad-cells that MIGHT be loaded with "all-up" anti-missile rounds.
These, supposedly, are the types of ships that will screen CVBGs and amphibious task groups... conduct AAW, ASW, ASUW, etc. in deep water...
I believe the Europeans use Goalkeeper, but even that I think is a modified GE gun.
The current blocks of CIWS may be just fine, but it's tragic that it seems that the Stark was in no position (materiel condition) to USE her CIWS at that critical moment. Either that, or it was in standby mode, cold and not being updated (manually, I supposed) by CIC, SPS-4x, STIR, CAS.. just the Mk1, Mod 0 eyeball and eyeball extenders (10x binoculars, without NVG...) and stunned bridge watch who reacted too slowly or inadequately...
Get or read a copy of "Missile Inbound". It is an excoriating read on the matter. From what I heard (not in the book), Stark only HAD extra AFFF (Aqueous Film-Forming Foam) and CO2 bottles and such because she'd borrowed from one or more ships in her squadron for the Pre-Deployment Inspection, and didn't return things before deploying. I think we did the same thing, borrowing, but we returned stuff. But, after Stark, MOST ships anyway were starting to get what they needed (and sometimes excess provision) for damage control when deploying. We had SHITLOADS of flammables (extra paper for radio, CIC, Supply... to print things out...) and dead weight to remove to lighten the ship back to deployment standards. Amazing what packrats we Sailors could be when complacent.
In the 70s and 80's, part of the problem with retention was directly due to CIA manipulation of (or, tacit compliance by) the USN SSN fleet. They had the boats laying/attaching cable sniffing devices, nearly costing several divers their lives as they were nearly crushed by the boats (USN SSNs) to which they were tethered. I understand that depth charges may have been used on some of these boats which penetrated Russian waters. The Russians/Soviets would have been WELL within their rights to depth-bomb the boats without warning, apology, or restitution.
So, in the early part of the 80's (June-ish 83) when I volunteered for SSN Advanced Electronics, my recruiter started the paperwork, and I was to report to Great Mistakes (Great Lakes) circa June 84. But, then, by June 84, when I swore in for the second time, at MEPS Oakland (1313? Clay St.) I was told I was not needed for SSN training. The navy no longer was having its retention problems.
Only years later, after reading Blind Man's Bluff, did I start to put two and two together. Hell, even my prospective recruiter in 1979-1982...
(I haunted the USN recruiters, and in Galveston AND in San Jose, ALL 5 branches wanted me; the Army and Marine recruiters were begging the Navy to trade me to them for 3 to 4 of their top candidates; I was interested in SHIPS and SUBS, not bivouacs and showerless days, infantry maneuvers, or being in the Chair Force... Granted I WAS a member of the Army JROTC of Ball High, and concurrently a Young Marine in the Henry W. Nichols Detachment of the Young Marines in the 10th grade, and upon moving to San Jose, was in the Army Military Science Explorers, training out the the USNGR center near downtown, and concurrently in the Milpitas High Navy JROTC, and was drawing/designing SSNs, SSBNs, and surface war ships (Free World Frigate variants, DDH/DDG/LHA/LHD forays)...... was a bubblehead and he didn't seem to be in ANY hurry to relinquish is recruiting role. Not that he was a bum, he probably dared not discourage me from volunteering for sub duty. I'd read Missile Base Beneath the Sea, numerous other contemporary and WWII sub and ship war books, and freaked him out when I drew a 7-bladed prop.. IN 1980/80!. See:
I'd been inspired by Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (which I'd increasingly come to despise for its fakery) and other shows. I bought cutaway model of the U-47, and one of the Geo Washington (that one, by Revell, ROYALLy pissed of one Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, for it gave a nice view of the reactor, recirc pump, steam vessel, prop shaft, generator sets, the SINS (Ship's Inertial Navigation System) and huge-ass gyro amidships...) and began to cut beer cans and shape props. I tested my Huey UH-1D model but could not blow hard enough to spin the two blades. The 3-bladed props on my LSD model wouldn't spin. I then used the aluminum and cut 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 blades of various pitch, rake, skew, and other things, by hand of course, and blew as HARD as I could down onto the blades. The 7-bladed one lifted off smoothly, rapidly, and in near balance, and nearly cut the shit out of my cheek in the process. Excitedly, I said, "THAT'S MY PROPELLER", and drew it on my notional SSBN. I'll always remember that thrum and VVVVOOOMPH sound that aluminum made as it lifted in near controlled-violence. In some ways, that sight and sound were (now) better than most occasions of adult contact (TMI, but you have to put this in the context of a 14-17 y.o. having self-discovered something no one would publish back then) I had. Imagine being on your ship when ILO (Initial Light-Off) of the plant or weapons or radar systems happens. You get that energizing, LIFE, feeling.
I took it to my recruiter, and he went ape-shit. Said "HOW'D YOU GET THAT???!!! THAT'S a national/USN secret!" Secret my ass, cuz one, he shouldn't have reacted that way, and two, by 1983 or so (a y
As long as a sub can hide and wait for a CVBG to cross within, say, 5 NM to any side, a hidden sub can vertical launch or float into a vertical launch one or more missiles, mines, decoys or other devices as a ruse or means to disperse the fleet and weaken the shield/umbrella.
Sure, they'll face retaliation, but for any rogue/stateless assailants wanting to damage or merely startle a CVBG (which may or may not end up in the press), this might be something we see more of -- by state-funded, stateless actors.
Now, that could be true. But, my feeling is that statement is a wee bit too generous. Besides, it probably is better that the Chinese CAN act as a counterbalance, to insert themselves between the US and US objectives that China doesn't need but doesn't want anyone else to take and destabilize the power balance in any region.
On VETERAN'S day, no less (unless it happened on the other side of the IDL...).
"According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation in the U.S. Navy.
The Americans had no idea China's fast-growing submarine fleet had reached such a level of sophistication, or that it posed such a threat.
One Nato figure said the effect was "as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik" - a reference to the Soviet Union's first orbiting satellite in 1957 which marked the start of the space age."
----
*I* will venture to say that "consternation" is a POLITE, GENEROUS description. The USN/DOD probably are having a major cataleptic fit. They're probably throwing chairs higher, harder and faster than Steve Ballmer, and HE already throws them faster than the speed of light...
Of course, the USN WILL, as obliged, say some shit like, "Well, if this had been the Enterprise, or the new George H.W. Bush, with their CVN ASW/CVIS suite, this would NEVER, NEVER happen. Why, our technological sophistication by FAR outstrips anything the Reds... Umm, are we on tape? Strike that... Correction all after Reds... Chinese Navy has in its inventory. Why, Our USS Virginia and Jimmy Carter boats are quieter at FLANK, above 500 below sea level than a ANY LA SSN or follow-on boat is just sitting at the pier with recirc pumps on minimal output..."
That may be, but you STILL got your ass embarrassed.
But, I don't for one SECOND believe China WOULD attack. They are just saying, TAG. Here's realism for your fake-ass scenarios and drills.
Why am I talking this way? Cuz I'm an ex Sailor, from 1984-1988, and after playing the "Terrorists" in security alerts aboard my second ship (an FFG), I grew to despise TYCOM Longbeach for the shitty scenarios we had. Sure, the "Nav" upgraded since 87, but I was still bored with and tired of officers who cheated their way into regaining control of the ship when I denied them with REALISTIC scenarios.
Also, I don't CARE that drones COST money. You have CIWS to do a TASK, not SIMULATE. That's why the Stark was popped, cuz her CIWS was BROKE DICK, NOT performing to manufacturer's claims. My ship deployed from Long Beach, as part of the NRF in Nov 87, to the Gulf, to in-chop by some date in Jan 88, and we had SIMA, Fleet this and Fleet that and I think Norden or NavElex and a other "experts" aboard, and that fucking GE gun failed to cooperate UNTIL we we're almost done transiting the Strait of Hormuz (Silworm Alley). It woke up to our surprise. Nobody in Long Beach, Pearl, Subic, or on-board could get that goddam gun to do jack shit in defensive mode.
I FIRMLY believe the Stark was a victim of lies all over the place. The ship's captain was a scapegoat. I believe MY ship's captain felt the same, because MANY of us in the crew donated funds to the victims and their families. Few other ships did that. I think our CO was making or allowing us to make a statement.
I also at the time, well, around June 87 as an E-4 Radioman, but not Gunner's Mate or weapons person, told several of the GM's (who were loading the DU (depleted Uranium) rounds into the gun (they were wearing asbestos gloves, but no respirators...tsk tsk...), "This gun isn't worth shit. All the Soviets need to do is pickle our asses from high altitude with a self-guided or corrected set of bombs. They don't even need a direct hit. Just defoliate our masts and antennas. Hell, they could come from zenith and attack the CVNs, BBs and anything else IF they can break through CAP (Combat Air Patrol) for CVNs or sqwack (fake being CommAir (commercial aircraft) and close in on us."
The Gunner's Mate, Guns (as opposed to Missiles)
But, China's stated policy (like the US') is not to fire first. However, China recently stated to the Naval Community worldwide this:
"China will not fire the first shot. But if a shot is fired AT us, the shooter will not fire a SECOND shot."
THAT will keep the smugness, arrogance and cheekiness out of the rest of the navies for the foreseeable future...
"In both cases I can see the point of the employer - they do not want you to have advance internal knowledge of their product, quit, and go "sell" yourself to their main competitor (and that could very well happen given how much some software is worth, how much money several companies have, and that those companies aren't the most honest places on the planet). I can also see why a software company would feel they own your software if you are a software engineer, they are paying you to do that and there is no way you can totally separate yourself from the company."
Unfortunately, the "See a lawyer" suggestion might not work. After all, MOST business laws on states' books are WRITTEN by pro-tems or some business-might lawyers, IIUC. Their lobby will be loathe to loosen their grip on de facto exploitation of employees.
Many business seem to FORGET that in school many students (or, inventive non-students) get ideas they implement for theses and projects. They come to work, integrate that academic know-how that "experts" in the company didn't even wet-dream of, and NOW that company thinks it can heist this work, steamroll over Open Source or school-obtained copyright and patents, and then just shrinkwrap it in a binary and compile it and get away scott-free.
The law of the land should be amended to prohibit companies from taking from an employee or prospective employee that which is in academic circles.
(To its credit, my employer said as long as my hobby doesn't involve overthrow of the government, or doesn't get into CARGO ship development, or core software the company develops (I don't have the skills to compete with it even if I had better ideas someday), then we won't have a problem.)
But, often some employers' boilerplate even want advance notice of ANYthing you will publish or present for publication. Even if it's a crimer or actioner they want to know, ostensibly to vet any potentially embarrassing information that could embarrass the company. EVEN if you write under a pseudonym (your friends could know who you are; ID thieves and others can sleuth out who you are by your SSN; publishing and promotional events could advertise and divulge you. Even if you are a GHOST writer, the above will apply.
See, it's code or law like that that means there should be a major insurrection.
In MY free time I use a low-end, user friendly database to create things like tracking characters in my fiction world, tracking compartments and fixtures in my ship designs (that I created LONG before joining my current employer which designs commercial ships and virtually NO military ships from scratch, tho that IS in the company's field of interest or potential involvement), and to track fake assumed fuel and range/distance capabilities.
Now, one year, in 2004, I worked for a mortgage company that (I later on found out) was cribbing Open Source code and sticking it into its own "proprietary" rate shop/search engine, and it seemed to be loathe to recontribute code to the community. I disclosed some of my inventions as being a spread-sheet based application that tries to simulate moving targets and intercepts of them based on simple geometry and math and algebra.
That spooked the IT director and the company lawyer/counsel because to them I was getting close to doing something they did: find the best interest rate, base, prime, down payment, etc. related to housing. But, if you do that with ships: Know speed, position, course, distance to target, target motion (up, down, toward, away from, speed, etc.) and attempt to intercept, you're really just chasing numbers, trying to do it smoothly, quickly, efficiently.
I disclosed other things, too. NONE of this had ANYthing to do with the company's line of business, and should NEVER have been part of their field of interest as a MORTGAGE company and software developer FOR the mortgage industry.
As for my current employment, I disclosed the same things and said that although none of it can be patented because I lack the resourced, I DO retain non-reassignable copyright over all that I created, no matter what I sign afterward.
It is obscene, objectionable, and beyond VILE for an employer to expect (boilerplate or not) ANYone who didn't use its internal information or tools or resources to just "hand over" anything that is easy to reproduce in the wild. If anyone wants my work THAT badly, they already have resources to just reproduce it. To pursue it in court would be just being specious and an attempt to destroy me. Besides, in the case of my drawings, what I put out is out; I cannot tell THOSE viewers to surrender their derivations.
Even if an employer only wants DERIVATIVES rights and not my originals, that's like taking my lifeblood since childhood and saying, "Never again or at least not for 6 months can you do this stuff, even if any Joe-Blow in a 9th grade school can go to the internet and do what you so far have done."
Well, in today's Examiner, there is this:
"Joe Simitian
The state senator has renewed his call for California residents to submit ideas for new state laws by extending the deadline for his annual "There Oughta Be A Law" contest. Simitian said he's listening to plenty of ideas from members of the community but not enough of them have been submitted in writing. The new contest deadline is Dec. 3. Contestants can fill out an application at www.senatorsimitian.com or can request one by calling (650 688-6384 or (831) 425-0401."
Well, there oughta be a law against ANY goddamn California-based, or California-connected employer or business or consultancy presenting and boilerplate or calculated contract saying that the employee, as a condition of hire or contracting, MUST divulge any inventions, assign copyright or patent rights to the employer, related or not to the company's core or peripheral or potential line/s of business.
Until and unless national law repudiates and makes morally repugnant/pugnacious and illegal these or similar contracts, then every hobbyist out there who lands a job due to passion in their hobby is likely or able to be screwed.
At the LEAST, the/a company can ASK (without guarantee) to have limited, non-exclusive interest for 4 or 6 months in DIRECTLY-THREATENING outside-wo
"Shock the Monkey" might make a handy comeback... Call it the "ShoThMo Model 1". Why, with the things we could create, and append to the body, it might give a new meaning to "bi-onics"...
Considering that he and his brother LIED to the "house of God" (Vatican) and that his actions led to (colon)ization and decimation of a population preexisting before squatters arrived, it's tragic that this nation (ass)ails "ter'rists", but celebrates one of the worst anglo terrorists to stalk the Earth.
And, just the other day Jerry Yang was called a moral pygmy... Imagine that the USA is siphoning data NOT just for domestic surveillance, but for reciprocal treaty nations, too. So, the US in effect IS doing MUCH worse than what Yahoo! in China is doing. Yang's company just did it to or against someone who was *probably* (not was, just saying for discussion purposes, *could* have been a dual agent, and the USA got pissed off. ANY national asset exposed is going to piss of the affected governments.
Well, like the good data whores they are, they can take it up the ass, too. At the dirt old toilet block. Logs and key strokes to their heartthrobs' delight. Parse all the shit they like...
You need to go walking near Moscone Center, oh, say around 5th and Folsom/Howard area... Near there is THAT building, IIRC. It looks like one I walked, bused and drove by multiple times over the past 15 or so years.
No wonder that SBC location is closed. One day, last year, it was active. Earlier this year, it was vacated. Homeless people slept near the perimeter, which had some serious anti-sleeping grating and railing in place.
When the Whistleblower put out his tune, NSA must have decided to move to new diggs.
Amazing the things we learn ONLY because people TALK.
Curious that it is marked 100% Flamebait, considering all the other threads that use the word racism, call it out as it is, and offer all sorts of other ideas about avoiding racial profiling.
My point, which seems to have so torqued and tortured someone (who might keep coming back to reset my comment to 100% Flamebait) is that unless SOMETHING significant happens to shock the shit out of stupid fucking humans, humanity's history will to its very end be plagued by greed, pestilence, racism, rape, plundering, and more.
Whether the ME history is plagued with racial and secular intolerance and violence and the US history was one of Manifest Destiny (from sea to shining sea, with the near-total "expurgation" of the devil Indian kind...) would make for a nice discussion at the college level course/syllabus. Might get EVERY student in the class a rating of "potential Ter'rist", the professor/lecturer fired and on a blacklist, and those students shitcanned out of the work force.
As for flamebait, maybe my singling out Archimedes and columbus might have so riled one or more (maybe even a high-ranking moderator), but if our timeline WERE changed, then we probably would not have to have THIS kind of discussion/commentary. We might still be slower (there exist right here in the US MORE than a handful of secular types that want to crash the system back to the agrarian days (but might like to keep their Kalishnikov's and anti-personnel mines) in the name of "God").
But consider this: the body of evidence about CHINESE naval explorers suggest that they only ones who stayed in the Americas (and who pretty much preceded columbus by some 70 YEARS) did NOT ravage, pillage or destroy the America's natives (yes, some Chinese sailors were carriers of and transmitters of deadly diseases which DID kill off thousands of Natives, but it wasn't INTENTIONAL, like back oh, where, in New York, one very cold winter....before/around the 1800's ); rather, the ones who remained were those shipwrecked and ended up intermarrying, or they were part of forgotten, or abandoned, outposts.
HOW many other nations before the formation of 'merku sailed, no CIRCUMNAVIGATED the globe with PRECISION, surveyed and used advanced cartographic technologies of the day, and DID NOT evict, purge, murder or expurgate the locals. Yes, I'm talking about China of the 1400's, not the government of today. And those ship commanders were Eunuchs, emasculated men loyal to their country. Emasculate Europeans and ask them to be ship captains in that day, what would happen?
And, for the moderator who slammed me to 100% Flamebait: You might like to recall that "Columbus Day" in the USA has lost significant favor among many employers. It's not politically correct to shut down in his name anymore. Yes, some institutions still do. I know.
Removing a few nits and gnats that spawned destruction can only be a GOOD thing, if time travel were a one-shot deal.
Look, mofos! To rid ourselves of the racist, expansionist, squatter) timeline to what we face now, why don't we just strive to build a time machine and go back and wipe out two mofos who are part of the problem:
-- Archimedes -- columbus (NO, I WON'T proper-case his name)
1. Set back Archimedes since his works enabled some people hundreds of years later to cowardly-like flee their corrupt monarchy/rule (rather than fighting it tooth and nail to the death to rid themselves of the current corruption, rather than fleeing and leaving it for the remainders)
2. Wipe out columbus' ass to prevent him from raping, plundering and marauding the Americas. Since he didn't figure out how to prevent scurvy, and many in his crew died anyway, what would be the loss if someONE could go back and wipe his ass out, maybe show him the future and what his "exploration" (based on theft/improper appropriation of Chinese charts and maps of which he wholly lacked the skills to produce himself; and his lying to the Vatican, which got him ill-deserved funding) caused to peoples.
Colonizing the the "Americas"
-- introduced disease and famine that killed MILLIONS (I know, I know, I read that Incas and Mayans self-destructed)
-- accelerated the destruction of MILLIONS of people and HUNDREDS of tribes, arguably destroyed long before "their time"
-- created a demand for slavery for the tobacco market
-- gave rise to the birth of one heinous Mathew Galbraith Perry, who went on to imperialistically shock (or further jolt) Japan out of its inward-looking isolationist policy (well, I admit, Japan also attacked parts of China and repeatedly struck Corea/Korea), with his -do business with us (the USA) or ELSE, on behalf of those who wanted to keep in check any European incursion into Asia
I submit that had Japan not been so shocked by the first-hand witnessing of US industrial might, Japan might have not developed (or further developed) its "Asia for Asians, save Asia by OUR hand alone" militaristic expansion.
But, then a defenseless Asia might not have been able to protect itself from Dutch and other European hijacking of oilfields in ASIAN waters/territory...
Now, doe this rant wake up any of those who think the continental USA is for US (anglo, judeo-christians?) ONLY? Earth is a huge exploratorium/playground to be shared by ALL who live on it, not isolated for just the elite or powerful or paranoid.
It's lame-ass territorialism that's making life here a drudgery for the unfed/underfed, politically imprisoned, and the fodder in uniform fighting on OTHER PEOPLE's lands on behalf of assholes in power back home.
UnderSTOOD, but there are a lot of predatory marketers out there. Just look at how many teenagers new to college are being heavily marketed by the credit card hawkers.
If the technology to hawk to people is there then there should be safeguards hawked, too!
Slashdot Mirror
-- Run in 64k of RAM
-- Sell me a Personal Deflector Shield (so I can evade the thrown chairs)
Did he TAKE anything from the employer that he couldn't find OUTSIDE the company?
A lot of these employers think that JUST because YOU, a RESOURCE to them, come up with an idea, well, then "it's ours". That's ludicrous. Unfortunately, a LOT of states won't change these onerous, specious, unctuous, vicious codes because a lot of the attorneys are pro business and are backed by businesses.
The best thing is to disclose what you feel safe disclosing, and annotating that it is exempt from the company's reach. For things super sensitive, ask if they'll accept an escrow firm to hold a sealed, confidential list of inventions to which the employer is not permitted to SEE, but can see that the envelope is still secure, unopened, untampered with. They can see you deposit the envelope, seal it, secure it, and surrender it to escrow, but they are NOT privileged to know the contents.
Then, if you leave, and your idea is NOT directly related to the company, but they are jealous, and you refuse their courting for the idea, then they are just as enjoined from pursuing YOUR preexisting ideas (or new, escrowed ones not related to the company's CORE, EXISTING, FORESEEABLE and reasonable line of work, or extensions of your previous work, but still outside of the company's DAILY routine/activities), as you are enjoined from taking their customer list -- even if YOU ADDED TO their list by bringing in clients you met after hours at a bar or movie or theme park.
Maybe someone can stat umm start a business model around IP escrow-enjoining-the-current/prospective employer.
Also, someone needs to start a business model (with blood-thirsty lawyers) challenging every contacted employer to re-write their NC/IPD/NDA contracts and PROVE publicly (maybe privacy concerns of individual employees might be an issue here) that they are not an "asshole to work for".
A LOT of companies angle to get themselves on the list of "Top # Companies to Work For", but they are really assholes when it comes to NDS/NC/IP Disclosure.
It is ESPECIALLY unfair to expect a copier repair person trained by the military to not work for another copier repair company, after terming with an existing copier repair company, for 6 months or a year. If the employees core skills came from academics, an external trainer, etc, then if that terming employee can prove that his/her new employer is not going to significantly damage the previous employer, then TOUGH for the losing party.
Programmers and designers cannot be expected to go work for Payless or PetCo or McDonalds JUST because an NDA says tsk tsk...
(INT WTF Slashdot:
"Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 16.3)."
Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 17.8).)
This I thought of frm 2117-2127 last night (made some minor changes since...)
I thought of the 1970's Partridge Family's first theme track, I guess since "Song" is the NATO designation of the Chinese SS... Also, since I am Buddhist, believe in reincarnation, and wonder if I'd been in Admiral Zheng He's fleet in the 1400's, I am taking some linguistic liberties, partly as a jab at Westerners who poke fun at Asian articulation of English.
However, I suppose that MOST of the USN Sailors of today are too young to even APPRECIATE the Partridge Family tune...
Here goes:
A Little Ditty for the PLAN Plan
Hello Gurl (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
There's a "SONG" (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
And we're SINGIN'(Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
Come on, let's HAPPYYY!(Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
A WHOOLE lot a bubbling(Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
Is WHAT we could brining (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
So YEH, WE HAPPY!(Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
---
The U-uhh Es-sah Navy (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
They thinkin' that we STUpid (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
But we have a lotta secrets-- (stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
That we haven't yet SHOWN (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
---
They HAVE a lotta weapon (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
And EXOTIC SUPER SENSOR (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
And the ELINT -- (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
But, NOW they wish they played (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! songs!)
it that our cover was BLOWN! (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
--
--
--
Hello gurl! (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
there's our boat (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
So yah, WE SINGING! (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
And Yah, we HAPPY! (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
A BOATLOAD of flooding (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
Is what we could bringing -- (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
But we're not so sneaky (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
--
--
--
So you're CVs and you're CGs (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
are a trawlin' all the ocean-- (Ignore; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
looking for our ass sets that (stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
you THOUGHT you had known-- (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code! Can't handle songs!)
Now your beaming and your seethin' (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!)
Soo your anchor's you're a heavin' (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!)
And the sensor in the launcher (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!)
Are about ABOUT TO BE THROWN (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!)
--
--
--
Hello Gurl, here's our DONG -- (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!)
And We swingin' (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!)
And now we're happeee! (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!)
--
The Zheng He is the NEXT boat-- (Ignore this parenthetical; stoopid slash code!)
And tho he was a Eunuch,
"If you weren't a GM, why should we trust you about CIWS? Since you incorrectly believe that asbestos gloves (which were long gone from the Navy by 1984 and wouldn't have been required for ammo handling anyhow) and that respirators were required for handling DU rounds (they aren't)..."
.50 caliber Browning machine gun manufacturing work.
.50 cal, and endured CS gas without hacking and gagging like my JROTC classmates and my bootcamp shipmates; and in the service trained with 12-gages, M-14, etc
No one says you HAVE to. But, I had seen the gun as the Army's Chaparral system when I was in high school. I'd seen it on ships. I'd seen the Enterprise fire it as a demonstration. My ship fired it before. I'd read whatEVER I could about it when I was in high school AND in the Navy.
And, get this: I'd found out (after I left the service) that some dipshit, dimwith politician on the East Coast lobbied HARD to get the gun downgraded so that HIS district constituents could get some of the
The CIWS was DESIGNED to take out:
- aircraft
- high-speed missiles
- small surface craft close aboard (that is, near to the ship, for you landlubbers)
- swimmers/divers
- DOLPHINS
- mines close abort and in the deflection/depression limits of the gun
It also is capable of being fired from local control in case CIC is destroyed or the fire control radars/systems are casualties of fire, explosion, or attack.
The damned gun was software-downgraded so some asshole could get WORK for his district.
On TOP of that, drones are pricey, and the "Nav" was loath to destroy them. Instead we fired AT towed targets, either surface or air.
Oh, yeh, and
-- I was on-track to become ESWS-qualified (Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist), but I desisted for local political reasons because my chain of command pissed me off in my final 4 months aboard ship in the Gulf in '88, and on TOP of that,
-- I was quarterdeck Petty Officer of the Watch qualified as an E-3 on a ship of 380-420 people.
-- I was qualified duty roving patrol as an E-3, on my first ship which was capable of carrying nukes
-- I was helo cargo handler and chock-and-chains qualified
-- I qualified expert in small arms fire in high school on the match rifle team (not that I was interested in becoming a sniper), fired the M204, M-16, M-14, M-60,
-- I was first-aid certified
-- I was the Captains PERSONAL PHONE TALKER on Flint (AE-32) for maneuvering and UNREP evolutions (I spoke or articulated better than the other deck ape seamen and was gung ho)
-- I was so gung ho that I was on the Security Alert Team and Backup Alert Forces initial reaction teams,
-- I was ALSO part of Flint's Flying Squad, our local initial strike team to combat fires, floods, damage, etc.
-- I was yeoman for my division in Deck
-- I blew away my 3rd and 2nd class fleet-wide exams for Radioman
-- I scored in the top 10% of some 800 Radiomen/women students (across three shifts; I was in class 862233 at San Diego), and earned the privilege to CHOOSE BY NAME my next duty station
-- Onboard JAM, I, as a radioman, started on my own seeking Quarterdeck POOW/OOD training, and my chief was pissed because he was afraid his princely RMs would have to stand QD watches on our undermanned ship
-- I pissed him off when I sought out quals for helm operator; again, pissed for the above
-- I knew both my ships inside out when aboard
-- I was the shipboard terrorist for Security Alerts because I infused a "sea change" in how the SAT/BAF had to cope with non-standard scenarios (I threw the Navy's shit out the window and made up my OWN scenarios, making officers late for 8 o'clock reports, miss movie call, make ships in the squadron nest wonder what in the hell was going on, and they had to reign me in cuz I caused them too much paperwork, time, and embarrassed the officers.
But I'd had adversities, too:
---- My San Jose recrui
In all that RAMBLING, what I forgot to mention re: the first para was that USN bubbleheads were like, "We're being depth-charged and mines are being place around us for the fucking CIA???!!?"
So, not necessarily in DROVES, but certainly in high enough numbers, SSn sailors started using various illicit narcotics in an attempt to become discharged or transferred to shore, brig or not, but ANYWHERE except fighting the CIAs for them. They'd joined to fight sub-to-sub, militarily, as sailors, not errand boys for an organization that had a budget without a limit but didn't want to buy their OWN conveyance. Some sailors claimed homosexuality, and more.
Once the morale issues were addressed (more and better/interesting assignment rotations ashore; increased hazard/at-sea/sub duty pay, etc...), retention was dramatically improved. This coincided with my not receiving orders to Great Mistakes. It wasn't personal, or that my math grades were crappy (the navy has ways of educating people, even marginally-graduating individuals), it just was that retention must have also coincided with a sudden drop-off of the spy missions that were risking these $250M to $700M boats and their fancy gear.
Why a drop-off? It was conceded that for the amount of risk taken on by the Navy, all the CIA was getting was information about gambling, illegal/excurricular weapons deals, sexual exploits and other dubious acts of ranking Soviet officers. It just wasn't WORTH it anymore to imperil these boats when they were constantly ever complex, expensive, and politically monitored. You can't explain to the American public that they died doing their duty when cracked, emotionally distraught sailors return home, unable to tell their wives or parents WHY they are cracking up, going nuts, and so on. Presumably, the CIA resorted to humint, techint, sigint, and other -ints to get what they needed.
And STILL, those Masters of the Universe didn't see the Berlin Wall coming down!
Oy vey...
Don't forget about the shareholders. In today's climate, restraint is generally expected more than ever. If some loose-cannon NCA or local Fleet Admiral/Commodore pops off some rounds based on non-agreeing ROE, a LOT of financial devastation will occur.
Don't forget:
Nortel
AMD
IBM
microsoft
HP
Sony
Fujitsu
And on and on and on have sites in China. So, where would the US retaliate first? Responding too soon would seem rash, as if lashing out. Waiting too long will just give rise to threat of sanctions, and maybe a "Failsafe"-like request for China to blow up one or two or six of their own ships as in-kind repayment.
Any US-initiated retaliation will so royally screw up the global economy the US will only expect to be the scourge of the planet. Shareholders want profit, sustained quarterly, and they DON'T want their fabs or R&D facilities blown up capriciously. A fab can cost BILLIONS to design, build and staff before even the first wafers are cut and shipped. Much like the new CVN/CVX for 2012 will cost some US $5.6 BILLION before first STEEL is even cut.
No, I suspect that local self-defense is allowed, but launching Tomahawks or Harpoons into the Yellow Sea/Taiwan Strait (take your pick) is verboten in the standing Rules of Engagement UNLESS clear, unequivocal PROOF of China's involvement can be found. Even so, MOST of the rest of the world despises the US, tho until the recent economic wreck of the dollar to Euro thingy, some countries now LOVE the US's weakened state as goods will cost less to buy in/from and maybe import TO the US.
Until/unless those high-tech companies start basing out of say, Dublin, Ireland, or Poland, or Portugal or someplace inexpensive but outSIDE of China, you can BET that they are constantly needling their congresspersons to keep the US military around Asia in check. Don't hit our factories. One stray Tomahawk, despite the celebrated precision electronics and striking during acceptance trials, and our market sector gains will be eroded beyond recovery.
There will probably be some InSea (Incidents at Sea) like with the US/Soviet ships playing chicken, scratching each other's paint jobs, hurling bag of dung, mooning each other, and flipping the bird, but those will be the unprofessional of the bunch topside. Fender-benders and "tag" will be occasional events in testing each other's fleet or unit professionalism for after-the-event, a measure of restraint. It will also allow each side to test each other and gives each side press to make the other side look bad.
China won't launch. An individual UNIT might, but even so, who wants to wreck a new, $2B boat early in the career, risk a bullet to the head, and face 88 or 120 angry souls upon reincarnation? That said, I WOULD expect a Chinese boat to fire if she detects cavitation datum bearing down on her. She won't know which threat axis is to be fired upon, so she will either go down gentlemanly-like, or fire what she can to be sure the world knows she didn't go down without a fight and probably didn't start the shit, either. But, only those analyzing the SOSUS data will know the truth of such an occurrence -- IF the sensors aren't snowed out or picking up too much ambiguous data.
Hmmm... It seems the USN keeps vacillating between CIWS or RAM or some canister-launched defensive thingy in combination with SLQ-32 (V), rubber ducky, and this and that.
I last read that the KDX-II and KDX-III had or will have RAM. Even the Australian Fleet Destroyer or Air superiority somesuch will not have GE's gatling gun. The pinion/mount will be there, but a box will shoot stinger-like AAW interceptors. I guess having 5 or 15 (seemingly not quickly reloadable) rounds run out in a saturation attack will render the ship to using any quad-cells that MIGHT be loaded with "all-up" anti-missile rounds.
http://english.kbs.co.kr/news/zoom/1356843_11781.html
http://english.kbs.co.kr/news/search_news.php
javascript:Player('url=vnews$2007$05$25$070525_2&kind=vnews')
http://english.kbs.co.kr/news/newsview_sub.php?menu=1&key=2007052513
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baesystems.com%2FBAEProd%2Fgroups%2Fpublic%2Fdocuments%2Fbae_publication%2Fbae_pdf_ccomms_hms_daring_info.pdf&ei=Chg5R-igIpSKpASMuMXTDA&usg=AFQjCNH3a3UKbXR5c7Zb6wqOjcumBEC5MA&sig2=r4W_JtxKtlyuctiLO9-TZA
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=358261&op=Reply&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=nested&pid=21331381
These, supposedly, are the types of ships that will screen CVBGs and amphibious task groups... conduct AAW, ASW, ASUW, etc. in deep water...
I believe the Europeans use Goalkeeper, but even that I think is a modified GE gun.
The current blocks of CIWS may be just fine, but it's tragic that it seems that the Stark was in no position (materiel condition) to USE her CIWS at that critical moment. Either that, or it was in standby mode, cold and not being updated (manually, I supposed) by CIC, SPS-4x, STIR, CAS.. just the Mk1, Mod 0 eyeball and eyeball extenders (10x binoculars, without NVG...) and stunned bridge watch who reacted too slowly or inadequately...
Get or read a copy of "Missile Inbound". It is an excoriating read on the matter. From what I heard (not in the book), Stark only HAD extra AFFF (Aqueous Film-Forming Foam) and CO2 bottles and such because she'd borrowed from one or more ships in her squadron for the Pre-Deployment Inspection, and didn't return things before deploying. I think we did the same thing, borrowing, but we returned stuff. But, after Stark, MOST ships anyway were starting to get what they needed (and sometimes excess provision) for damage control when deploying. We had SHITLOADS of flammables (extra paper for radio, CIC, Supply... to print things out...) and dead weight to remove to lighten the ship back to deployment standards. Amazing what packrats we Sailors could be when complacent.
In the 70s and 80's, part of the problem with retention was directly due to CIA manipulation of (or, tacit compliance by) the USN SSN fleet. They had the boats laying/attaching cable sniffing devices, nearly costing several divers their lives as they were nearly crushed by the boats (USN SSNs) to which they were tethered. I understand that depth charges may have been used on some of these boats which penetrated Russian waters. The Russians/Soviets would have been WELL within their rights to depth-bomb the boats without warning, apology, or restitution.
...
... was a bubblehead and he didn't seem to be in ANY hurry to relinquish is recruiting role. Not that he was a bum, he probably dared not discourage me from volunteering for sub duty. I'd read Missile Base Beneath the Sea, numerous other contemporary and WWII sub and ship war books, and freaked him out when I drew a 7-bladed prop.. IN 1980/80!. See:
So, in the early part of the 80's (June-ish 83) when I volunteered for SSN Advanced Electronics, my recruiter started the paperwork, and I was to report to Great Mistakes (Great Lakes) circa June 84. But, then, by June 84, when I swore in for the second time, at MEPS Oakland (1313? Clay St.) I was told I was not needed for SSN training. The navy no longer was having its retention problems.
Only years later, after reading Blind Man's Bluff, did I start to put two and two together. Hell, even my prospective recruiter in 1979-1982
(I haunted the USN recruiters, and in Galveston AND in San Jose, ALL 5 branches wanted me; the Army and Marine recruiters were begging the Navy to trade me to them for 3 to 4 of their top candidates; I was interested in SHIPS and SUBS, not bivouacs and showerless days, infantry maneuvers, or being in the Chair Force... Granted I WAS a member of the Army JROTC of Ball High, and concurrently a Young Marine in the Henry W. Nichols Detachment of the Young Marines in the 10th grade, and upon moving to San Jose, was in the Army Military Science Explorers, training out the the USNGR center near downtown, and concurrently in the Milpitas High Navy JROTC, and was drawing/designing SSNs, SSBNs, and surface war ships (Free World Frigate variants, DDH/DDG/LHA/LHD forays)...
http://www.otanashide.com/17.html
Look at pic # 41, the last one.
I'd been inspired by Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (which I'd increasingly come to despise for its fakery) and other shows. I bought cutaway model of the U-47, and one of the Geo Washington (that one, by Revell, ROYALLy pissed of one Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, for it gave a nice view of the reactor, recirc pump, steam vessel, prop shaft, generator sets, the SINS (Ship's Inertial Navigation System) and huge-ass gyro amidships...) and began to cut beer cans and shape props. I tested my Huey UH-1D model but could not blow hard enough to spin the two blades. The 3-bladed props on my LSD model wouldn't spin. I then used the aluminum and cut 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 blades of various pitch, rake, skew, and other things, by hand of course, and blew as HARD as I could down onto the blades. The 7-bladed one lifted off smoothly, rapidly, and in near balance, and nearly cut the shit out of my cheek in the process. Excitedly, I said, "THAT'S MY PROPELLER", and drew it on my notional SSBN. I'll always remember that thrum and VVVVOOOMPH sound that aluminum made as it lifted in near controlled-violence. In some ways, that sight and sound were (now) better than most occasions of adult contact (TMI, but you have to put this in the context of a 14-17 y.o. having self-discovered something no one would publish back then) I had. Imagine being on your ship when ILO (Initial Light-Off) of the plant or weapons or radar systems happens. You get that energizing, LIFE, feeling.
I took it to my recruiter, and he went ape-shit. Said "HOW'D YOU GET THAT???!!! THAT'S a national/USN secret!" Secret my ass, cuz one, he shouldn't have reacted that way, and two, by 1983 or so (a y
Mwuh? Blue-green laser? For communications, but for detection?
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=5&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.global-defence.com%2F2000%2Fpages%2Fantisub.html&ei=dQQ5R9ONCZqmpwSDpri5DA&usg=AFQjCNFurOKcHV-O93WzeGxSR3G52nZNHA&sig2=nQgPQgY1Z_CHW9fPYsT5_A
I'm not up to current events with subs, but check these out:
http://bubbleheads.blogspot.com/2007/05/co-of-uss-helena-relieved-for-cause.html
http://makeyourdepth.blogspot.com/
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_33/virginia_2.html
As long as a sub can hide and wait for a CVBG to cross within, say, 5 NM to any side, a hidden sub can vertical launch or float into a vertical launch one or more missiles, mines, decoys or other devices as a ruse or means to disperse the fleet and weaken the shield/umbrella.
Sure, they'll face retaliation, but for any rogue/stateless assailants wanting to damage or merely startle a CVBG (which may or may not end up in the press), this might be something we see more of -- by state-funded, stateless actors.
Now, that could be true. But, my feeling is that statement is a wee bit too generous. Besides, it probably is better that the Chinese CAN act as a counterbalance, to insert themselves between the US and US objectives that China doesn't need but doesn't want anyone else to take and destabilize the power balance in any region.
"Sinnnng, Sing a song...."
On VETERAN'S day, no less (unless it happened on the other side of the IDL...).
"According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation in the U.S. Navy.
The Americans had no idea China's fast-growing submarine fleet had reached such a level of sophistication, or that it posed such a threat.
One Nato figure said the effect was "as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik" - a reference to the Soviet Union's first orbiting satellite in 1957 which marked the start of the space age."
----
*I* will venture to say that "consternation" is a POLITE, GENEROUS description. The USN/DOD probably are having a major cataleptic fit. They're probably throwing chairs higher, harder and faster than Steve Ballmer, and HE already throws them faster than the speed of light...
Of course, the USN WILL, as obliged, say some shit like, "Well, if this had been the Enterprise, or the new George H.W. Bush, with their CVN ASW/CVIS suite, this would NEVER, NEVER happen. Why, our technological sophistication by FAR outstrips anything the Reds... Umm, are we on tape? Strike that... Correction all after Reds... Chinese Navy has in its inventory. Why, Our USS Virginia and Jimmy Carter boats are quieter at FLANK, above 500 below sea level than a ANY LA SSN or follow-on boat is just sitting at the pier with recirc pumps on minimal output..."
That may be, but you STILL got your ass embarrassed.
But, I don't for one SECOND believe China WOULD attack. They are just saying, TAG. Here's realism for your fake-ass scenarios and drills.
Why am I talking this way? Cuz I'm an ex Sailor, from 1984-1988, and after playing the "Terrorists" in security alerts aboard my second ship (an FFG), I grew to despise TYCOM Longbeach for the shitty scenarios we had. Sure, the "Nav" upgraded since 87, but I was still bored with and tired of officers who cheated their way into regaining control of the ship when I denied them with REALISTIC scenarios.
Also, I don't CARE that drones COST money. You have CIWS to do a TASK, not SIMULATE. That's why the Stark was popped, cuz her CIWS was BROKE DICK, NOT performing to manufacturer's claims. My ship deployed from Long Beach, as part of the NRF in Nov 87, to the Gulf, to in-chop by some date in Jan 88, and we had SIMA, Fleet this and Fleet that and I think Norden or NavElex and a other "experts" aboard, and that fucking GE gun failed to cooperate UNTIL we we're almost done transiting the Strait of Hormuz (Silworm Alley). It woke up to our surprise. Nobody in Long Beach, Pearl, Subic, or on-board could get that goddam gun to do jack shit in defensive mode.
I FIRMLY believe the Stark was a victim of lies all over the place. The ship's captain was a scapegoat. I believe MY ship's captain felt the same, because MANY of us in the crew donated funds to the victims and their families. Few other ships did that. I think our CO was making or allowing us to make a statement.
I also at the time, well, around June 87 as an E-4 Radioman, but not Gunner's Mate or weapons person, told several of the GM's (who were loading the DU (depleted Uranium) rounds into the gun (they were wearing asbestos gloves, but no respirators...tsk tsk...), "This gun isn't worth shit. All the Soviets need to do is pickle our asses from high altitude with a self-guided or corrected set of bombs. They don't even need a direct hit. Just defoliate our masts and antennas. Hell, they could come from zenith and attack the CVNs, BBs and anything else IF they can break through CAP (Combat Air Patrol) for CVNs or sqwack (fake being CommAir (commercial aircraft) and close in on us."
The Gunner's Mate, Guns (as opposed to Missiles)
But, China's stated policy (like the US') is not to fire first. However, China recently stated to the Naval Community worldwide this:
"China will not fire the first shot. But if a shot is fired AT us, the shooter will not fire a SECOND shot."
THAT will keep the smugness, arrogance and cheekiness out of the rest of the navies for the foreseeable future...
"In both cases I can see the point of the employer - they do not want you to have advance internal knowledge of their product, quit, and go "sell" yourself to their main competitor (and that could very well happen given how much some software is worth, how much money several companies have, and that those companies aren't the most honest places on the planet). I can also see why a software company would feel they own your software if you are a software engineer, they are paying you to do that and there is no way you can totally separate yourself from the company."
Unfortunately, the "See a lawyer" suggestion might not work. After all, MOST business laws on states' books are WRITTEN by pro-tems or some business-might lawyers, IIUC. Their lobby will be loathe to loosen their grip on de facto exploitation of employees.
Many business seem to FORGET that in school many students (or, inventive non-students) get ideas they implement for theses and projects. They come to work, integrate that academic know-how that "experts" in the company didn't even wet-dream of, and NOW that company thinks it can heist this work, steamroll over Open Source or school-obtained copyright and patents, and then just shrinkwrap it in a binary and compile it and get away scott-free.
The law of the land should be amended to prohibit companies from taking from an employee or prospective employee that which is in academic circles.
(To its credit, my employer said as long as my hobby doesn't involve overthrow of the government, or doesn't get into CARGO ship development, or core software the company develops (I don't have the skills to compete with it even if I had better ideas someday), then we won't have a problem.)
But, often some employers' boilerplate even want advance notice of ANYthing you will publish or present for publication. Even if it's a crimer or actioner they want to know, ostensibly to vet any potentially embarrassing information that could embarrass the company. EVEN if you write under a pseudonym (your friends could know who you are; ID thieves and others can sleuth out who you are by your SSN; publishing and promotional events could advertise and divulge you. Even if you are a GHOST writer, the above will apply.
See, it's code or law like that that means there should be a major insurrection.
In MY free time I use a low-end, user friendly database to create things like tracking characters in my fiction world, tracking compartments and fixtures in my ship designs (that I created LONG before joining my current employer which designs commercial ships and virtually NO military ships from scratch, tho that IS in the company's field of interest or potential involvement), and to track fake assumed fuel and range/distance capabilities.
Now, one year, in 2004, I worked for a mortgage company that (I later on found out) was cribbing Open Source code and sticking it into its own "proprietary" rate shop/search engine, and it seemed to be loathe to recontribute code to the community. I disclosed some of my inventions as being a spread-sheet based application that tries to simulate moving targets and intercepts of them based on simple geometry and math and algebra.
That spooked the IT director and the company lawyer/counsel because to them I was getting close to doing something they did: find the best interest rate, base, prime, down payment, etc. related to housing. But, if you do that with ships: Know speed, position, course, distance to target, target motion (up, down, toward, away from, speed, etc.) and attempt to intercept, you're really just chasing numbers, trying to do it smoothly, quickly, efficiently.
I disclosed other things, too. NONE of this had ANYthing to do with the company's line of business, and should NEVER have been part of their field of interest as a MORTGAGE company and software developer FOR the mortgage industry.
As for my current employment, I disclosed the same things and said that although none of it can be patented because I lack the resourced, I DO retain non-reassignable copyright over all that I created, no matter what I sign afterward.
It is obscene, objectionable, and beyond VILE for an employer to expect (boilerplate or not) ANYone who didn't use its internal information or tools or resources to just "hand over" anything that is easy to reproduce in the wild. If anyone wants my work THAT badly, they already have resources to just reproduce it. To pursue it in court would be just being specious and an attempt to destroy me. Besides, in the case of my drawings, what I put out is out; I cannot tell THOSE viewers to surrender their derivations.
Even if an employer only wants DERIVATIVES rights and not my originals, that's like taking my lifeblood since childhood and saying, "Never again or at least not for 6 months can you do this stuff, even if any Joe-Blow in a 9th grade school can go to the internet and do what you so far have done."
Well, in today's Examiner, there is this:
"Joe Simitian
The state senator has renewed his call for California residents to submit ideas for new state laws by extending the deadline for his annual "There Oughta Be A Law" contest. Simitian said he's listening to plenty of ideas from members of the community but not enough of them have been submitted in writing. The new contest deadline is Dec. 3. Contestants can fill out an application at www.senatorsimitian.com or can request one by calling (650 688-6384 or (831) 425-0401."
Well, there oughta be a law against ANY goddamn California-based, or California-connected employer or business or consultancy presenting and boilerplate or calculated contract saying that the employee, as a condition of hire or contracting, MUST divulge any inventions, assign copyright or patent rights to the employer, related or not to the company's core or peripheral or potential line/s of business.
Until and unless national law repudiates and makes morally repugnant/pugnacious and illegal these or similar contracts, then every hobbyist out there who lands a job due to passion in their hobby is likely or able to be screwed.
At the LEAST, the/a company can ASK (without guarantee) to have limited, non-exclusive interest for 4 or 6 months in DIRECTLY-THREATENING outside-wo
"Shock the Monkey" might make a handy comeback... Call it the "ShoThMo Model 1". Why, with the things we could create, and append to the body, it might give a new meaning to "bi-onics"...
Well, that WOULD be "a lot of BANG for the BUCK"...
Considering that he and his brother LIED to the "house of God" (Vatican) and that his actions led to (colon)ization and decimation of a population preexisting before squatters arrived, it's tragic that this nation (ass)ails "ter'rists", but celebrates one of the worst anglo terrorists to stalk the Earth.
And, just the other day Jerry Yang was called a moral pygmy... Imagine that the USA is siphoning data NOT just for domestic surveillance, but for reciprocal treaty nations, too. So, the US in effect IS doing MUCH worse than what Yahoo! in China is doing. Yang's company just did it to or against someone who was *probably* (not was, just saying for discussion purposes, *could* have been a dual agent, and the USA got pissed off. ANY national asset exposed is going to piss of the affected governments.
Well, like the good data whores they are, they can take it up the ass, too. At the dirt old toilet block. Logs and key strokes to their heartthrobs' delight. Parse all the shit they like...
You say WHAT?
You need to go walking near Moscone Center, oh, say around 5th and Folsom/Howard area... Near there is THAT building, IIRC. It looks like one I walked, bused and drove by multiple times over the past 15 or so years.
No wonder that SBC location is closed. One day, last year, it was active. Earlier this year, it was vacated. Homeless people slept near the perimeter, which had some serious anti-sleeping grating and railing in place.
When the Whistleblower put out his tune, NSA must have decided to move to new diggs.
Amazing the things we learn ONLY because people TALK.
Curious that it is marked 100% Flamebait, considering all the other threads that use the word racism, call it out as it is, and offer all sorts of other ideas about avoiding racial profiling.
My point, which seems to have so torqued and tortured someone (who might keep coming back to reset my comment to 100% Flamebait) is that unless SOMETHING significant happens to shock the shit out of stupid fucking humans, humanity's history will to its very end be plagued by greed, pestilence, racism, rape, plundering, and more.
Whether the ME history is plagued with racial and secular intolerance and violence and the US history was one of Manifest Destiny (from sea to shining sea, with the near-total "expurgation" of the devil Indian kind...) would make for a nice discussion at the college level course/syllabus. Might get EVERY student in the class a rating of "potential Ter'rist", the professor/lecturer fired and on a blacklist, and those students shitcanned out of the work force.
As for flamebait, maybe my singling out Archimedes and columbus might have so riled one or more (maybe even a high-ranking moderator), but if our timeline WERE changed, then we probably would not have to have THIS kind of discussion/commentary. We might still be slower (there exist right here in the US MORE than a handful of secular types that want to crash the system back to the agrarian days (but might like to keep their Kalishnikov's and anti-personnel mines) in the name of "God").
But consider this: the body of evidence about CHINESE naval explorers suggest that they only ones who stayed in the Americas (and who pretty much preceded columbus by some 70 YEARS) did NOT ravage, pillage or destroy the America's natives (yes, some Chinese sailors were carriers of and transmitters of deadly diseases which DID kill off thousands of Natives, but it wasn't INTENTIONAL, like back oh, where, in New York, one very cold winter....before/around the 1800's ); rather, the ones who remained were those shipwrecked and ended up intermarrying, or they were part of forgotten, or abandoned, outposts.
HOW many other nations before the formation of 'merku sailed, no CIRCUMNAVIGATED the globe with PRECISION, surveyed and used advanced cartographic technologies of the day, and DID NOT evict, purge, murder or expurgate the locals. Yes, I'm talking about China of the 1400's, not the government of today. And those ship commanders were Eunuchs, emasculated men loyal to their country. Emasculate Europeans and ask them to be ship captains in that day, what would happen?
And, for the moderator who slammed me to 100% Flamebait: You might like to recall that "Columbus Day" in the USA has lost significant favor among many employers. It's not politically correct to shut down in his name anymore. Yes, some institutions still do. I know.
Removing a few nits and gnats that spawned destruction can only be a GOOD thing, if time travel were a one-shot deal.
9.???
9. PROPHET
Look, mofos! To rid ourselves of the racist, expansionist, squatter) timeline to what we face now, why don't we just strive to build a time machine and go back and wipe out two mofos who are part of the problem:
-- Archimedes
-- columbus (NO, I WON'T proper-case his name)
1. Set back Archimedes since his works enabled some people hundreds of years later to cowardly-like flee their corrupt monarchy/rule (rather than fighting it tooth and nail to the death to rid themselves of the current corruption, rather than fleeing and leaving it for the remainders)
2. Wipe out columbus' ass to prevent him from raping, plundering and marauding the Americas. Since he didn't figure out how to prevent scurvy, and many in his crew died anyway, what would be the loss if someONE could go back and wipe his ass out, maybe show him the future and what his "exploration" (based on theft/improper appropriation of Chinese charts and maps of which he wholly lacked the skills to produce himself; and his lying to the Vatican, which got him ill-deserved funding) caused to peoples.
Colonizing the the "Americas"
-- introduced disease and famine that killed MILLIONS (I know, I know, I read that Incas and Mayans self-destructed)
-- accelerated the destruction of MILLIONS of people and HUNDREDS of tribes, arguably destroyed long before "their time"
-- created a demand for slavery for the tobacco market
-- gave rise to the birth of one heinous Mathew Galbraith Perry, who went on to imperialistically shock (or further jolt) Japan out of its inward-looking isolationist policy (well, I admit, Japan also attacked parts of China and repeatedly struck Corea/Korea), with his -do business with us (the USA) or ELSE, on behalf of those who wanted to keep in check any European incursion into Asia
I submit that had Japan not been so shocked by the first-hand witnessing of US industrial might, Japan might have not developed (or further developed) its "Asia for Asians, save Asia by OUR hand alone" militaristic expansion.
But, then a defenseless Asia might not have been able to protect itself from Dutch and other European hijacking of oilfields in ASIAN waters/territory...
Now, doe this rant wake up any of those who think the continental USA is for US (anglo, judeo-christians?) ONLY? Earth is a huge exploratorium/playground to be shared by ALL who live on it, not isolated for just the elite or powerful or paranoid.
It's lame-ass territorialism that's making life here a drudgery for the unfed/underfed, politically imprisoned, and the fodder in uniform fighting on OTHER PEOPLE's lands on behalf of assholes in power back home.
UnderSTOOD, but there are a lot of predatory marketers out there. Just look at how many teenagers new to college are being heavily marketed by the credit card hawkers.
If the technology to hawk to people is there then there should be safeguards hawked, too!
Alien Recipe?
Chez Voila!
Umm, I think that was Discovery Channel... might not have been PBS...