Robert's Ruminations

Do You Need Data Encryption? The decision to encrypt data is based on the balance between accessibility, safety, and security. Consider these aspects in relation to an ink on paper journal. (I find that most questions about computer usage are resolved by simply translating the question into 19 th century terms.) If this journal contains private information that you will need infrequently, and of which you wish no one else to ever see, you will keep just the one handwritten journal. You will place this journal in a vault to which you have the only key. Suppose you have business partners who also need infrequent access to the journal. You will have to give each of them a copy of the key. Next, suppose the information, while sensitive, is required on a frequent basis. The locked vault may cause too much delay in fetching the journal. Instead of a locked vault, you use a journal with its  own lockable cover. Going further, you make copies of the pages, binding these int

About a quarter of a century ago, I wrote a little essay about the difference between being a scientist and being an engineer. Here is an updated version. Engineers engineer engineering. The above sentence is grammatically correct and meaningful. It is so because "engineer" is both a noun and verb. In contrast, the following sentence is pure nonsense. Scientists science science. Science is not a verb -- only a noun. It is a thing, not an activity. To make an equivalent defining sentence for scientists as we have done for engineers, we should write this: Scientists discover science. That engineer is a verb and science is a noun is at the core of the difference between being an engineer (one who is engaged in engineering or has been trained for engineering) and a scientist (who is engaged in discovery or elucidation of science). Engineering is about conceiving, designing, planning, building and making. Science is knowledge. Scientists perform observation, investi

A friend asked me to explain hypothesis and theory. There are so many excellent resources on this topic, I should simply point the reader toward such. For example my favorite is "The Ring of Truth" by  Dr.  Philip Morrison and Phylis Morrison, both of whom have passed from this life, leaving an excellent legacy of science and science writing behind them.  Still it is always educational for a writer to write upon a given topic. No better way to learn (or relearn) than to teach. So here is my expression.   I. Definitions Observation : A statement about things you can see, hear, taste, feel, and so forth. Example: Fossils exist because we actually can dig such up and hold the fossils in our hands.  Observations are often combined. Fossils are old and can be chronologically ordered, because we believe in related geological processes, which were independently observed and determined.  We have natural observations, which are those made by simply looking at the