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First, Do No Harm - A Hippocratic Oath for Coders?
rhysweatherley asks: "With the increase in spyware, spam, etc, is it time for a Hippocratic Oath for Programmers? Should programmers be able to refuse to write code that harms the public more than it helps? Should they code defensively to prevent software and information being misused for unintended purposes? And how do we protect such programmers from being dismissed unfairly for standing on principle?"
To all companies:
If any of you programmers turns down work on principle, please send it to me. Since I'm a whor^H^H^H^Hconsultant, I'm in business to make money. And I'm willing to write whatever you ask for without giving a single thought to youthful idealism.
Sincerely,
infinite9
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
Hippopocrates wrote the oath because the physicians of his time abused their knowledge, became vindictive, capricious and arbitrary.
Say, you don't think a sys-admin would ever do that, do you?
=brian
To that end, I volunteer to put together the first annual Who's Who in Computer Programming. This book will chronicle the most important, ethical people in the industry and will be invaluable to prospective employers who are looking for the creme de la creme of morally introspective code artisans.
If you feel you should be in this book, please send me your name, e-mail address, and the most complicated typedef or template instantiation you have ever written or even tried to read. Only the top programmers will be selected for publication but for $35 I can see to it that you are given priority consideration, your own half-page, a leather-bound edition of the 2003 Who's Who as well as a certificate (suitable for framing) with your name in large-point gothic letters.
No, I'm not going to do PHP on that porn site I was working on earlier because damnit, I think the women who are being paid money for it don't know what they're doing to themselves.
If I take a stand against The MAN, and do it for the sake of the women, perhaps I can be the voice that changes the opinions of a generation of men. I can help those women get REAL hard-working jobs, like at the McDonald's across the street.
I'm going to do it, because I care for all of you. Because in my heart, you are all my brothers, and sisters, and I know that if I do my part to be good to society, eventually it will be good in return to me.
Ooops, where was I? Oh yes...
$sql = "select * from PictureTable where Catagory1 = \"Double-D\" AND Catagory2 = \"sex\""
$query = mysql_query($sql);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($query))
{ echo "<img src = \"".$row[1]."\">
";}
Eh, nevermind what I said before... Screw you guys... :)
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Come on guys. I bet only 1 in 10 MDs know the Hippocratic Oath. What good would it do for coders?
I prefer trust that comes from peer review.