Mike Jaqua
___________________________________________________________________________
Subject: PETS (fwd)
Author: Dean Turcoliver <deano@nerc.com> at INTERNET
Date: 10/11/96 1:43 PM
Subject: PETS - People for Ethical Treatment of Software
SOFTWARE TORTURED DURING TESTING, PETS CLAIMS
Victims Cooped up in Tiny Rooms
People for Ethical Treatment of Software (PETS) announced today that more
software companies have been added to the group's "watchlist" of companies
that regularly practice software testing.
"There is no need for software to be mistreated in this manner so that
companies like these can market new products," said Ken Granola, a
spokes-bipodal-being for PETS. "Alternative methods of testing these
products are available."
According to PETS, these companies force software to undergo lengthy and
arduous tests - often without rest - for hours or days at a time. Employees
are assigned to "break" the software by any means necessary, and inside
sources report that they often joke about "torturing" the software.
"It's no joke," Granola said. "Innocent programs, from the day they are
compiled and linked, are cooped up in tiny rooms and 'crashed' for hours on
end.
They spend their whole lives on dirty, ill-maintained, 16-bit Intel
computers, and they are unceremoniously deleted when they're not needed
anymore."
"We know that alternatives to this horror exist," he said, citing industry
giant Microsoft Corp. as a company that has become successful without
resorting to software testing.
- Original author unknown