Computer World
World since the first computer was made in the late fifties, the technology
has
developed extremely. Computers, which were the size of a living room
then, are
now being made in unimaginable sizes. More and more areas are being
taken over
by the computer. As computers are capable of handling large
amounts of data in a
very short time, they are well suited for
word-processing. I guess that it
won’t be long till magnetic tapes and
diskettes replace all the
paper-archives. A diskette can contain much more
data than a written page, and
it takes fewer places It is possible to get the
New York telephone book on just
one diskette. In the near future, a new area
will be taken over by computers,
namely maps. Different routes are stored on
one single compact disk. Imagine,
simply insert the CD into the CD-driver in
your car, and tell the computer where
to go. The rest will be done
automatically. This will become a safer, faster,
and more comfortable way to
travel. Another new area, called "virtual
reality" is currently being tested.
This is a way to simulate reality on a
monitor. In order to feel this
so-called reality you have to wear special
electronic glasses and an
electronic suit. Fastened to the suit are sensors,
which send information to
the main computer. This computer works with the data
and displays them on the
electronic spectacles. This is a technique which use
three-dimensional views,
therefore the scenery seems incredibly realistic. If
you want to be a boxer,
simply change the scenery on the main computer, and you
are in the ring, the
choices are endless. Today, many kids have own one form of
some sort of video
game. You could say these games are the present’s answer to
monopoly. In a
way, it is a great advantage that the kids are being presented to
computers
at an early age, because they will definitely have to use them later
in their
careers. In the future there will be few occupations, which won’t
use
computers, one way or another. But the videogames are often being
presented as
something negative, which hinder the kids from doing homework
and other more
useful activities. This partially true, if they do much of it.
But generally, I
think the young people’s contact with computers is positive.
In America today,
it is getting more common to have a computer at home. You
can use a personal
computer to keep household-budgets or for other personal
reasons. It is also
possible to get in touch with your bank and transfer
money while you’re in
your living room. It is possible to contact other
databases and gather
information from them. The use of computers has lead to
other criminal actions.
"Hacking" is one of them. A "hacker" steals and
manipulates
information from other databases. These crimes can be very
harmful. In The U.S.
hackers have managed to break into private databases.
The computer-programs, the
software, are extremely high priced, sometimes
they are even more expensive than
the hardware. Therefore it is not unusual
to make copies of these programs. This
is strictly illegal, but nobody seems
to care, because it is difficult to
control it. Software producers loose
billions of dollars each year because of
this. Many methods have been
invented to prevent this, but since the
"hackers" often are more intelligent
than those who make the software,
I doubt that there will ever be a
successful way to hinder this.