Tom
While I think most of your meditation is highly worthy (and richly deserving of my
++), I have a bit of a problem with the unsupported generalization in:
Scientists are smarter than most, they are well educated, almost all need data processing in their work, and most have tragically limited software-engineering training.
May I suggest s/Scientists...training/Some scientists...training.
Even that's less than 'high-precision' -- judging solely by my experience (hence, merely 'anecdotal evidence' -- as much of what you wrote appears to me to apply to "Many scientists." One could also kvetch about "smarter than most" as "smarter than most about some things" would probably be more accurate. ;-(
