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Ok, Benjamin. I am going to accept your inherent insult as to my
programming ability and laugh my ass off while I go back to writing
the code on my task list today that doesnt require me to treat it as
something it not. Keep It Simple Stupid is used so often by so many
great programmers and each of them recognize the fact that when you
are designing software that controls the rudders and flaps of an
airplane this phrase takes on a much different meaning than when you
are comparing two strings against each other and looking for a common
series match of 5 digits.. thats my task at the moment, comparing zip
codes. Either they match or they don't,,, pretty simple stuff. I now
realize that my comparison of zip codes to the current topic at hand
really had nothing in common and nothing should have been said.
The last part of my post read: Please don't take offense by this as I
understand what
it is you are suggesting but still have a hard time comparing a
computer crash to a plane crash.
My mistake was using the word crash. That was a poor choice of words
and I apologize for that obvious level of insensitivety. My point was
not to upset or insult. Apparently I need to be more careful as I
hope you will when you start insulting people who have never spoken
with and I can assure you will never speak with again.
On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 07:03:25 -0800 (PST), Benjamin Franz
<snowhare@nihongo.org> wrote:
> On Fri, 31 Dec 2004, M. David Peterson wrote:
>
> > That and your not going to die if something goes wrong with each
> > built-in safety-switch in your test code... Its hard for me to think
> > of the implications of failed code compared to implications of a
> > failed flight. Please don't take offense by this as I understand what
> > it is you are suggesting but still have a hard time comparing a
> > computer crash to a plane crash.
>
> You should subscribe to the Risks Digest. More that a couple of deaths are
> attributable to broken software.
>
> People treat software like it isn't real. Software machines are just as
> real as hardware machines - and often control hardware machines. If
> you are killed by a radiation therapy machine because of broken software -
> you are just as dead as if the cause was broken hardware.
> <URL:http://www.ccnr.org/fatal_dose.html>
>
> And yes - commercial planes _HAVE_ crashed where one of the proximate
> causes was broken software (accidents are rarely 'one thing' - they are
> usually two or more things in unusual combination): Put American Airlines
> Flight 965 into a search engine.
>
> I'm of the opinion that software is where engineering was about a century
> ago: In demand, unregulated, and open to anyone who wants to call
> themselves a 'programmer', regardless of skill or training. Disasters
> directly traceable to poor 'engineering' by people with neither skill or
> training killed a number of people and laws were passed restricting who
> can legally call themselves an 'engineer'.
>
> By the end of this century, I will be amazed if you will still be able to
> call yourself a 'software engineer/progammer' without a legally mandated
> certification, license and professional standards.
>
> --
> Benjamin Franz
>
> "All right, where is the answer? The battle of wits has begun.
> It ends when you click and we both serve pages - and find out who is right,
> and who is slashdotted." - David Brandt
>
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--
:: M. David Peterson ::
XML & XML Transformations, C#, .NET, and Functional Languages Specialist
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