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Subject:Re: Liability and Morality From:"Dennis Hays/The Burden Lake Group, Ltd." <dlhays -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 27 Jun 1996 17:00:41 -0400
Tim Altom asked the question, "Are we morally responsible..." in writing to
try and inform the user(s) of any dangers.
While this may be a personal decision for each of us to answer, I feel I
NEED to bring up important points with project leaders, managers, corporate
executives, and others. I try and write the best docs I know how and that
means morally responsible to (excuse me, Spike Lee) Do the Right Thing.
Here's a recent example: (All the following is NOT CLASSIFIED)
I work on a project developing software which tracks radiation exposure of
workers in U.S. Navy shipyards. Whenever a worker enters and exits a
radiation area, they monitor any radiation exposure to their bodies. Doseage
can be defined as exposure over time.
I brought up the question the other day, "What happens when a worker enters
a radiation at 01:50 on Saturday immediately before the change to Daylight
Savings Time, then clocks out 40 minutes later, how much time does the
system show he's been in there. Conversely, what about the same times but
during the spring changeover. In one instance, the system shows he's had no
doseage because he clocked out before he clocked in and the other adds an
hour to his total time.
Needless to say, the powers are thinking this over and reasoning how to
implement a change (I suggested using GMT as the clock, but this would cause
a rewrite of various parts of the system and more expense. Stay tuned...
Dennis Hays\The Burden Lake Group, Ltd.
Voice: 518/477-6388 Fax: 518/477-5006
eMail: dlhays -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
"God doesn't want you to be certain.
That's why He gave you a brain."
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