Over the years I have been writing this column, I have assembled a group of contributors who as part-time visitors to Mexico, are unable to buy the paper every week and have expressed an interest in continuing to read my column. 

In last week’s tirade I inveighed against the use of those dots that are used to obscure passwords when entered on the computer. 

Something that I have always considered to be an example of bad design and bad philosophy is the use of those stupid dots and asterisks used to populate password fields so that nobody can see what has been typed. 

Censorship is defined as the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etcetera. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to somebody’s security. 

Finally, finally, after five decades of waiting the question has been answered!  I will come back to that in due course but first some discussion of other more current questions.

There are times an Information Technology support person such as me has the opportunity to see both sides of a disagreement, and sometimes I have to sympathize with both sides and lament that there is no way the needs of both parties can ever be satisfactorily reconciled.  As a professional who has spent years doing computer support work for law offices and financial institutions, I fully understand the need for security, confidentiality, and strict adherence to procedures.  As someone who also works with an older population of computer users I also understand the desirability of avoiding unnecessarily complicated procedures whenever possible.