Fun_People Archive
4 Oct
Risks of subcontracting

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Fri,  4 Oct 96 13:57:10 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: Risks of subcontracting

From: rosenzweig@acm.org (Vicki Rosenzweig)

This is from Newsday, Monday 30 September 1996, which credits unspecified
"news-service reports"

Windows 95 users in China will be in for a surprise when their computer
screens flash a message describing the country's leaders as "Communist
bandits."

Microsoft, which spent nine months adapting its program for use in China,
is scrambing to remove the phrases, which also urged Taiwan's government to
"take back the mainland."

The messages were in editing software licensed by Microsoft from Taiwanese
companies for its personal computer operating system.

According to Microsoft, the phrases were removed from unsold software, and
the company is sending new software to registered users.


The RISK here, as I see it, is in not inspecting the work done by
subcontractors. This incident is funny, or possibly offensive depending on
where you live and what your politics are; I wouldn't want people with this
approach designing safety-critical systems.

Vicki Rosenzweig

© 1996 Peter Langston