Re: looks like some web developers are getting back into 4GL environment...

Not necessarily. I haven't come across any mention of them having shipping insurance...

Ownership of cargo changes hand when payment is made. If the recipient pays on delivery, the risk of loss during shipping is borne by the shipper. If the recipient pays for it before it ships, then the recipient accepts the risk of loss during shipping.

Incidentally, did you know that if the captain of a merchant vessel has to throw some cargo overboard in order to save the ship from sinking, everyone else with cargo on board the ship has to chip in and pay for the lost cargo?

Or, if the captain sails the ship into a bridge, with the utterance of a few words, everyone with cargo on board the ship is now liable for the damage to the bridge?

There *is* insurance for that nowadays...

[..]

> My company, however, was using computers. The process I inherited was as
> follows. The manifest was entered into a computer while the ship started
> sailing across the sea. The manifest was compressed and sent via EDI to our
> computer, where it was loaded into our computer software. We then printed
> out the manifest and presented it to customs - almost always after the ship
> had arrived, often many days afterwards. At least with the baked clay
> tablets, when the ship arrived, so did the manifest!

There is one drawback though: when the ship goes down, you lose the manifest as well. Now you don't know what cargo you've lost! Unless, of course, they made copies of the tablets.

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Janus Christensen
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http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l



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