Talk:Robert Morris (cryptographer)

Moving from Robert Tappan Morris Sr.
The current article probably misstates Dr. Morris's name. See this primary source by Dennis Ritchie, who knows Morris personally. The article refers to the same cryptographer as Bob (Robert H.) Morris.

http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/crypt.html

This article should probably be renamed to "Robert H. Morris" or "Robert H. Morris (cryptographer)". The identification of this Morris as "Robert Tappan Morris" is probably an incorrect inference from the name of his son (Robert Tappan Morris or Robert Morris, Jr.).

This article should also be updated to reflect some of the material from the Dennie Ritchie article.

Also, there is no recent information cited indicating whether Morris still works at NSA/NCSC or not. He did clearly work there during the time periods described in Stoll's book and Ritchie's article.

... the Ritchie article seems to indicate that Morris has retired from the government.

I second that we should move the page. I do not know the correct middle initial, but Tappan is definitely wrong -- NedMike.
 * I think it's "H.", but probably "Robert Morris" is adequate for the time being. See a Google search that provides evidence that Robert Morris Sr. is Robert H. Morris Sr. -- Schoen 30 June 2005 03:11 (UTC)
 * Since Robert Morris is a useful disambiguation page, how about making this page be Robert H. Morris and the page for rtm be Robert Tappan Morris, eliminating the existing disambiguation page at Robert Tappan Morris? Then the existing rtm article should become a redirect to Robert Tappan Morris, and the Robert Morris page can include accurate references to both corrected pages. -- Schoen 30 June 2005 03:18 (UTC)


 * I know the correct middle initial as 'h' as Bob's login was "rhm". He authored quite a few Unix tools. Crypto was merely one of Bob's interests. It was not his primary area of work at Bell Labs. That work was not generally discussed or discussable (ASW). 209.129.244.250 (talk) 22:32, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

OK, this particular move has now been accomplished, and the disambiguation page has been fixed, too. --Schoen 20:12, 10 July 2005 (UTC)

The number puzzle
The person who added the solution suggested, if I remember correctly, that the solution should be provided or else the puzzle should not be mentioned. My preferences would be:
 * (1) My original version (which gives a link to the solution after a spoiler warning template),
 * (2) Give the solution after a spoiler warning template,
 * (3) Do not mention the puzzle at all, or at least do not pose it to the reader as a puzzle, and
 * (4) The current version, which gives the puzzle and the answer with no spoiler warning.

Does anyone have comments on this? --Schoen 07:37, 4 August 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm not totally sure that the puzzle needs to be mentioned at all, to be honest. But if the puzzle is mentioned, then it would be good to avoid giving away the solution. A spoiler template could work, although it's a little heavy for such a minor item -- perhaps a footnote would work better? &mdash; Matt Crypto 09:05, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Source for "3 rules of computer security" quote?
I've tried to track down where the "The three golden rules to ensure computer security are: do not own a computer; do not power it on; and do not use it." quote came from, without success. The given citation is just one of numerous re-publishings of the quote, not an actual original source. If anybody has further leads, please post. JesseW, the juggling janitor 03:50, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

Your ref is to a 2003 book. I cannot find anything earliest than 26 April 2000 on a Debian newsgroup, by Cesar Mendoza, attributed to Robert _T._ Morris. I will go systematically through my usual plethora of techniques, newspapers.com, newspaperarchive, Factiva, perhaps lexis advance, oldestsearch, discmaster, google books, google scholar, google groups, even bing, but I don't think it'll turn up anything. So I suspect, unfortunately, this is an apocryphal quote and I think it deserves a "dubious - discuss" tag at least. Cancerward (talk) 02:10, 13 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Replaced with a close, sourceable quote from Grampp and Morris, 1984. Cancerward (talk) 03:54, 2 August 2023 (UTC)

Co-author of "dc" and "be"
According to


 * https://wiki.tuhs.org/doku.php?id=people:robert_morris
 * Libes, Don; Ressler, Sandy; Ressler, Sanford (1989). Life With UNIX: A Guide For Everyone. Prentice Hall. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-13-536657-8.

Avindra talk 16:51, 10 June 2021 (UTC)