"Daniel Morgan" <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote in message
news:1073426524.284188_at_yasure...
> Galen Boyer wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 06 Jan 2004, john.g_at_dot.spamfree.com wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Sorry, but, while not on a par with medicine ( or law or
> >>nursing, or many others) , any profession responsible ,in many
> >>cases, for keeping multi-million dollar organizations up and
> >>running ( think about the Airlines, Banks, Stock Exchange,UPS,
> >>etc.) need not be shy about being proud of its skills. [I
> >>know of one company that would lose 25K for each minute the
> >>database was down] Their does need to be some way, however, to
> >>insure that those that profess to be DBAs ( or Application
> >>Developers, Web Designers, whatever) have the skill set needed
> >>for the task at hand. How to do this makes for a lively debate.
> >
> >
> > I never said, nor do I think that we shouldn't be extremely proud
> > and also strive to be very good at what we do. I just
> > fundamentally disagree with those in this newsgroup that think
> > what we do is do damn important, so important that they liken it
> > to medicine.
>
> Your disagreement is noted: We just respectfully disagree.
>
> I have personally worked on systems that Boeing, at an international
> bank, for government agencies, at pharmaceutical firms, and hospitals.
> Systems that could, if they make a mistake, cost someone their
> livelihood or their life in exactly the same way as could a
> malpracticing physician, attorney, or engineer.
>
> In fact these systems might be able to do more damage. A physician can,
> at most, hurt a handful of patients before being caught. A mistake in a
> prescription monitoring system can injure or kill many hundreds, even
> thousands before the error is detected.
>
> --
> Daniel Morgan
> http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/oad/oad_crs.asp
> http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/aoa/aoa_crs.asp
> damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
> (replace 'x' with a 'u' to reply)
>
An error in airline software on how much to put on what plane and where
could cost the life of everyone on board! (weight management)
Jim
Received on Tue Jan 06 2004 - 16:09:53 CST
