3 ms·

"10x the lifetime salary of a worker is high." So? Losing a limb is huge. "Nothing is 100% reliable or safe. We are lucky to have a 1.7% rate of serious injur

by s73v3r 11y ago

"10x the lifetime salary of a worker is high." So? Losing a limb is huge. "Nothing is 100% reliable or safe. We are lucky to have a 1.7% rate of serious injury/fatality in the US on a full time worker per year situation. You aren't going to be able to reduce that significantly. Operating heavy machines is dangerous." And this is an incentive for employers to keep up maintenance and make sure that their workers are properly trained. And to not do what happened in this story, which is to try to get people to cut corners so they can make a couple more units.

Erwin 11y ago
Would you apply this to software engineering, and if not why not? Should the engineer that was responsible for some XSS flaw 3 years ago used today to extract personal information (which in turn can be used for identity theft) be personally required to pay damages? Should a peer that reviewed and approved their code, and maybe the sysadmin that deployed it and manage who run the projects and didn't use all possible security controls?
- s73v3r 11y ago
  There is a difference, and it's that losing a limb can mean an end to one's ability to support themselves. Especially with cases like this one.
  - ci5er 11y ago
    As an analogy - what's the difference? What if the error was in the machine's control system logic? Should, or should not, the production tool (and software) be held accountable for what may have been ill advised use of the machine? (Reaching inside to seat the metal sheet sounds like a dodgy move. Bad design? Broken machine? Stupid operator?) When tragedy strikes, we, as moral animals, want to assign blame. Seek justice. Maybe even retribution. Unfortunately, our justice-seeking missiles are rarely a precision instrument, and the ultimate cause of the accident may have been well away from the floor of the accident itself. It might have been the software engineer. Who knows. But the question (as a hypothetical) remains -- if it WAS the software engineer for the control system of the widget-stamping thingie used at LG's factory in Mexico, should that engineer be held accountable?

by s73v3r 11y ago

Erwin 11y ago

Would you apply this to software engineering, and if not why not? Should the engineer that was responsible for some XSS flaw 3 years ago used today to extract personal information (which in turn can be used for identity theft) be personally required to pay damages? Should a peer that reviewed and approved their code, and maybe the sysadmin that deployed it and manage who run the projects and didn't use all possible security controls?

s73v3r 11y ago
There is a difference, and it's that losing a limb can mean an end to one's ability to support themselves. Especially with cases like this one.
- ci5er 11y ago
  As an analogy - what's the difference? What if the error was in the machine's control system logic? Should, or should not, the production tool (and software) be held accountable for what may have been ill advised use of the machine? (Reaching inside to seat the metal sheet sounds like a dodgy move. Bad design? Broken machine? Stupid operator?) When tragedy strikes, we, as moral animals, want to assign blame. Seek justice. Maybe even retribution. Unfortunately, our justice-seeking missiles are rarely a precision instrument, and the ultimate cause of the accident may have been well away from the floor of the accident itself. It might have been the software engineer. Who knows. But the question (as a hypothetical) remains -- if it WAS the software engineer for the control system of the widget-stamping thingie used at LG's factory in Mexico, should that engineer be held accountable?