What I am and what I am not

I consider myself to be halfway between an engineer (who actually designs and oversees construction of things) and a scientist (who collects and analyzes data on scientific topics). I think of myself as a "Physical scientist" and I prefer to work in the world of Newtonian physics (no relativity, no high-energy physics).

I am certainly not a computer software guy, but I have worked on a lot of software development projects. I mostly use the most user-friendly calculation software out there (Excel). I have worked with a series of computer guys over the years, and even the system administrator guys know so much more than I do, that they can hardly explain to me what they do to keep our networks running. I floundered trying to understand the firmware that a fellow wrote for my wireless network (in a rudimentary language called TinyOS). I struggled to understand what goes on behind an interactive web page when I was helping build them. And I cannot imagine the steps required to write real software (like computer games, MS Excel itself, printer drivers, etc.).