Subject: Re: IP: Wal-Mart PC, Operating System *Not* Included: $399 (fwd)
To: None <netbsd-advocacy@netbsd.org,>
From: Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon@widomaker.com>
List: netbsd-advocacy
Date: 02/23/2002 11:54:05
On Fri, Feb 22, 2002 at 02:56:50PM -0500, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> [ On Friday, February 22, 2002 at 12:04:25 (-0500), Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote: ]
> > Subject: Re: IP: Wal-Mart PC, Operating System *Not* Included: $399 (fwd)
> >
> > A professional _should_ have a certain ethical responsibility,
> > irregardless of what the consumer does. If the market only had good
> > products, the companies would not die, consumers would choose among
> > those just as they now choose among crap.
> 
> Actually if that professional is a registered Professional Engineer in
> many jurisdictions, at least in North America, then he or she _must_
> adhere to certain ethical responsibilities.

I keep hearing that the ACM and IEEE Computer Society are going to try and
create a guild of sorts for computer science.

Their membership rules already state things about you not using inferior
technology and all that.

But my big question is, will they apply these rules to themselves?  I find
the IEEE and the ACM to be a big supporter of questionable things.

And how about that ACM computer programming contest that has been done
in schools for many years now?  It has nothing to do with ability,
and is everything about how fast you can code.

Hopefully the IEEE and ACM will start practicing what they preach if such a
guild ever does form.

-- 
UNIX/Perl/C/Pizza__________________________________shannon@widomaker.com