was Re: Mensan seeks work

[George Toft]

"John (EBo) David" wrote:
> 
> Trent Shipley wrote:
> >
> > Medical boards are developed by the AMA, American College of Physicians, and
> > State Medical Boards,
> >
> > Certs for Attorney's are prepared by state Bar Associations.
> >
> > Certs for auto mechanics are granted by the American Society of Automotive
> > Engineers.
> >
> > Even vetrenarians certify themselves.
> >
> > Why are certs for IT trades and professions effectively granted by Cisco,
> > Microsoft, and Oracle instead of the IEEE, Computer Professionals for Social
> > Responsibility, and SIGMOD?
> 
> So suggest that they set one up.  Many people will ignore it until
> enough people come to realize that a IEEE CS/E cert really means
> something... then it might be useful...
> 
>   EBo --

Software "Engineering" is one of the few (the only one I know of, actually)
Professions that does not require a State certification.  Electrical and
Mechanical Engineers and Architects must go through this, why not Software 
Engineers?

20 years ago, nobody imagined a computer doing more than screwing up your
bill, which could be fixed with some phone calls and/or letters.  Now we
have them running our lives and making decisions that could kill us.  It 
is time to make Software Engineers and Software Architects demonstrate 
minimum competence, like a building Architect or a bridge builder.

Did you know to install cat 5 cabling in a building (yes, even your own
house), you have to have a Contractor's License from the State of Arizona?
Yet we can write software that cheerfully discloses your name, address,
account numbers, SSN, phone numbers, mother's maiden name and leave it 
on a web server in plain text, and this is considered acceptable 
performance.  You would be shocked at what this little line does:
find /logs 2>/dev/null | xargs grep "37[0-9]\{10\}00[0-9]"
(It finds all files with credit card numbers from a certain institution
and displays its findings.)

Personally, I would rather have an unlicensed contracter route 5V cabling
in my house than have my personal life sitting on a web server waiting
to be discovered by a hacker (15% chance), a contractor (15% chance) or
and FTE (70% chance).  (Percentages based on FBI data from 1998).  The
risk of fire from a network cable is very remote.  The risk of having 
my personal information misused, I feel, is much greater.

John, I'm going to take you up on your suggestion.  Maybe we can make
Arizona the first state to require Software Engineering Professional
Examinations for enyone who writes business and/or engineering code.

Regards,

George