A World We Live In - Unit7

However hard the manufacturers and advertisers of personal computers try to convince us of the 'friendliness' to their product, it is still a fact that if you want to programme your own computer, you have to learn its language. It doesn't understand yours. This simple fact is the reason why so many home computers are underused. It also prevents a lot of people from buying their own computer. Rather than licking your hand, the computer quite often bites. Imagine yourself having a conversation with an English person. You make one small grammar mistake, maybe you say 'have' instead of 'has'. It doesn't matter. The person understands your meaning and the conversation continues. This doesn't happen with a computer. If you make even the smallest mistake in its language, the conversation breaks down completely and you have to go back to the beginning. It can be very frustrating.

So, even as you read this, the race is on. In the United States, in Japan, in Britain, computer specialists are all trying to develop a computer that will understand human language. They expect to have it ready for sale within the next three years. Are you ready to say 'Hello' to the future?

(Lorraine Weller Abridged from "Modern English International")

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II.What does "bird-brained" mean in English? Are computers "bird-brained"? Why are they called so?

BIRD-BRAINED COMPUTERS

To call someone "bird-brained" in English means you think that person is silly or stupid. But will this description soon disappear from use in the light of recent research? It seems the English may have been unfair in associating birds' brains with stupidity.

In an attempt to find out how different creatures see the world, psychologists at Brown University in the USA have been comparing the behaviour of birds and humans. One experiment has involved teaching pigeons to recognize letters of the English alphabet. The birds study in classrooms', which are boxes equipped with a computer. After about four days of studying a particular letter, the pigeon has to pick out that letter from several displayed on the computer screen. Three male pigeons have learnt to distinguish all twenty-six letters of the alphabet in this way.

A computer record of the birds' four-month study period has shown surprising similarities between the pigeons' and human performance. Pigeons and people find the same letters easy, or hard, to tell apart. For example, 92 per cent of the time the pigeons could tell the letter D from the letter Z. But when confronted with U and V (often confused by English children), the pigeons were right only 34 per cent of the time.

The results of the experiments so far have led psychologist Donald Blough to conclude that 'pigeons and humans perceive in similar ways. This suggests that there is something fundamental about the pattern recognition process.' If scientists could only discover just what this pattern recognition process is, it could be very useful for computer designers. The disadvantage of a present day computer is that it can only do what a human being has programmed it to do, and the programmer must give the computer precise, logical

instructions. Maybe in the future, though, computers will be able to think like human beings.

(Arthur Conway From "BBC English")

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III.a) Read about new computer capabilities. What else could you add to it?

WRITING TO YOUR COMPUTER

The benefits of the computer revolution have been elusive for one group of people: those who can't - or won't - type. Lacking keyboard proficiency, they can't use computers to process data, write letters or access programs. All that may soon change. Anatex, a software firm based in Paris, will begin marketing Personal Writer, a program that reads handwriting and turns it into printed text on the computer screen. "Our market is anyone who is more comfortable with a pen than a keyboard," says Xavier Maury, president of the company.

Penmanship traits: Designed to work with a Macintosh computer, Personal Writer consists of an electronic writing slate and a special ballpoint pen. The user places a sheet of paper on the electronic slate to activate the program. If the writer is using the system for the first time, he must "train" it by hand copying two pages of text from the manual. The Personal Writer program analyzes the individual's penmanship traits and records them in a file. Personal Writer will be available in two versions: one will read hand printing (writing with unconnected letters); the second, more sophisticated version will read script or cursive writing.

Personal Writer can even recognize changeable handwriting: if the computer gets stumped by a strange "m" scrambled in a rush, it will ask for clarification and store the letter for future reference. In effect, the Personal Writer program can recognize nearly endless variations of any letter. Once the writing is transmitted into the computer, it can be displayed on the screen or printed out as a manuscript.

A built-in 200,000-word dictionary, available in both English and French, helps interpret the handwriting. For example, if "seasons" is written with an "s" that looks more like a "z", the program will check the listings for "seasonz", and, failing to find it, automatically insert the proper spelling.

Anatex will begin marketing Personal Writer in France for a retail price of $1,300. For marketing purposes, the hand-printing program will be made available first. "We want people to get accustomed to the product," Maury says. The script-reading version will be realised soon after at a slightly higher price. Anatex will market Personal Writer in the United States next summer at a lower cost to match competitive U.S. prices. And an IBM-compatible version should be ready by the end of the year. Maury predicts there will be strong demand for Personal Writer, even if rival software firms begin selling their own handwriting programs. After all, there's a potential worldwide market of 200 million bad typists.

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TRANSLATION:

LETTING COMPUTERS DO IT

Scientists have long predicted that computers would one day help speed up the arduous task of translating texts - and now that time has come. Systems designed in the United States, Japan, Europe and South America follow one of the two basic approaches. The "direct" method uses rules of syntax and grammar to translate one language into another, while the "interlingua" approach employs an internal intermediate language as a bridge between the "source" and "target" languages.

Still, difficulties remain. Few programs can yet resolve the ambiguities in such sentences as "Ship sinks today." (Is it a newspaper headline or an order to send out a shipment of sinks?) Editors still must refine the translations by interpreting some idioms and deciphering unfamiliar words. But the programs are improving , and the companies involved are optimistic. "In 10 years' time," says the head of one Japanese firm, "more than 80 per cent of all translation work will be done by machines."

Taking the direct route

The direct approach is the most common, though not always the simplest, method of computer translation. It requires a separate program - including a dictionary of thousands of words and phrases, as well as rules of syntax, grammar and conjugation - for each pair of languages involved in a given translation.

Last summer, a small Tokyo firm, Bravice International, Inc. began marketing the country's first commercial Japanese-to-English translation system. Unlike word-based systems, this one breaks a Japanese sentence into phrases that are translated and then reconfigured into an English sentence. The company says the system can translate Japanese into passable English at a rate of up to 3,000 words an hour an simple texts.

A program developed by Automated Language Processing Systems (ALPS) of Provo, Utah, calls for the continuous assistance of a human translator. The system presents an operator with sentence-by-sentence adaptations that can be changed immediately. The computer "learns" as it proceeds through a text; once a term has been translated to the user's satisfaction, it will be changed the same way when it appears again.

ENGLISH INTO FRENCH: HOW A MACHINE DOES IT

Some problems still remain, but fast, accurate translations are now a reality

I LOVE YOU ¬		SUBJECT		VERB OBJECT
Syntax analysis shows this sentence structure.
JE AIMER TE /VOUX/			¬	The computer's dictionary finds the corresponding French
words, choosing the verb 'aimer' instead of the noun 'l'amour.'
JE TE /VOUS/ AIMER			¬	SUBJECT VERB OBJECT
The computer is programmed to place the verb of the French sentence after the object.
JE TE /VOUS/ AIME ¬			The verb is conjugated.
JE TE AIME	¬	The dictionary entry for 'aime' calls for use of the familiar 'te' instead of the
formal 'vous.' (In cases where the plural form is correct, the change can be made manually.)
JE T'AIME	¬	The computer's knowledge of French grammar instructs it to replace a
double vowel with an apostrophe.

A universal language?

The interlingua method is most effective for texts that require translations into several

languages. One such program is Systran, marketed by world Translation Center, Inc., of La Jolla, Calif., and used by the Commission of the European Communities. Researchers at the Group Study for Automatic Translation in Grenoble, France, continue to refine their 10-year-old system that makes use of a "neutral language" called Ariane, which standardizes the syntactic organization of a language before the actual translation.

A unique approach has been developed by Bolivian computer scientist Ivan Guzman de Rojas. He found that Aymara, a language spoken by 3 million Indians in the Bolivian and Peruvian highlands, contains a simple yet rigid syntax structure that could be easily reduced to algebraic equations suited to a computer. These equations form the core of a mathematical "language" that can be applied to virtually any Western language. Already, the system can translate English, Spanish, French or German into the other three languages at a rate of 600 words a minute. Guzman de Rojas says the dictionary capacity still must be expanded to arrive at a passable accuracy rate of 90 per cent.

Logos Corp. of Waltham, Mass., uses a modified interlingua method in its GermanEnglish program. It incorporates a universal language that analyzes structure and content, while using the direct method to complete the translation. The system operates on the Wang Office Information System.

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COMPUTER GRAPHICS

From time immemorial there have been complaints that mathematics is too abstract a subject for the majority of children to grasp. Professional mathematicians contend that all maths has a visual basis and offer as proof the fact that the subject is taught commonly with the aid of diagrams and solid models. In addition, a degree of manual skill is necessary to a geometer. It is worth recalling that the artists of the Renaissance, like Leonardo and Durer, were students of Euclid. Now, once again, Art and Mathematics are drawing closer together as computer graphics are being used to enable children not only to understand the significance of the symbols they use but also to give their mathematical operations visual expression on the computer screen.

b) Below you are given a short passage on the subject of computer graphics. However, all the vowels are missing and your task is, simply, to decide where to put the vital a e i o or u.

Fr.m.t.m. .mm.m.r..l th.r. h.v. b..n c.mpl..nts th.t m.th.m.t.cs .s t.. .bstr.ct . s.bj.ct f.r. th. m.j.r.ty . f ch.ldr.n t. gr.sp. Pr.f.ss..n.l m.th.m.t.c..ns c.nt.nd th.t.ll m.ths h.s . v.s..l b.s.s.nd .ff.r.s pr..f th. f.ct th.t th. s.bj.ct.s t..ght c.mm.nly w.th th. ..d .f d..gr.ms

.nd s.l.d m.d. ls. ..n .dd.t..n, . d.gr.. .f m.n..l sk.ll .s n.c.ss.ry t. . g..m.t.r. .t .s w.rth r.c.ll.ng t th. .rt.sts .f th.

R.n..ss.nc., l.k. L..n.rd. .nd D.r.r, w.r. st.d.nts .f..cl.d/ N.w, .nc. .g..n, .rt.nd M.th.m.t.cs .re dr.w.ng cl.s.r t.g.th.r s c.mp.t.r gr.ph.cs .r. b..ng.s.d t. .n.bl. ch.ldr.n n. .nly t. .nd.rst.nd th. s.gn.f.c.nc. .f th. symb.ls th.y.se b.t.ls.t.g.v. th ..r m.th.m.t.c.l .p.r.t..ns v.s..l.xpr.ss..n.n th. c.mp.t.r scr..n.

SURFING THE INTERNET.

This short, non-technical article is an introduction to Internet communications.

Today I'll travel to Minnesota, Texas, California, Cleveland, New Zealand, Sweden, and England. I'm not frantically packing, and I won't pick up any frequent flyer mileage. In fact, I'm sipping cocoa at my Macintosh. My trips will be electronic, using the computer on my desk, communications software, a modem, and standard phone line.

I'll be using the Internet, the global network of computers and their interconnections, which lets me skip like a stone across oceans and continents and control computers at remote sites. I haven't "visited" Antarctica yet, but it is only a matter of time before a host computer becomes available there!

What's Out There Anyway?

Until you use a radio receiver, you are unaware of the wealth of programming, music, and information otherwise invisible to you. Computer networks are much the same. About one million people worldwide use the Internet daily. Information packet traffic rises by 12% each month.

About 727,000 host computers are connected, according to January, 1992 report (Network Working Group Request for Comments: 1296) by Mark K. Lottor. So, what's all the excitement about? What's zipping around in that fiber and cable and ether, anyway?

I looked at the weather forecast for here in the East and for the San Francisco Bay area, forwarding that information to a friend in San Jose who would read it when he woke up. The Internet never closes!

After that I read some electronic mail from other librarians in Israel, Korea, England, Australia and all over the U.S. We're exchanging information about how to keep viruses off public computers, how to network CDROMS, and how to reink inkjet printer cartridges, among other things.

I monitor about twelve discussion groups. Mail sent to the group address is distributed to all other "subscribers". It's similar to a round-robin discussion. These are known variously as mailing lists, discussion groups, reflectors, aliases, or listservs, depending on what type they are and how they are driven. Subscriptions are free.

One of these groups allows children and young adults all over the world to communicate with each other. Kids from Cupertino to Moscow are talking about their lives, pets, families, hope and dreams. It's interesting to see that Nintendo is a universal language!

Teachers exchange lesson plans and bibliographies in another group, and schools participate in projects like the global market basket survey. For this project, students researched what foods a typical family of four would buy and prepare over one week's time. Their results were posted to the global project area, where they could be compared with reports from kids all over North and South America, India, Scandinavia, and Asia.

A net connection in a school is like having multiple foreign exchange students in the classroom all the time. It promotes active, participatory learning. Participating in a discussion group is like being at an ongoing library conference. All the experts are Out There, waiting to be asked.

Here is one story about the power of the net. At Christmas, an electronic plea came from Ireland. "My daughter believes in Santa Claus," it began. "And although the "My Little Pony Megan & Sundance" set has not been made in three years, she believes Santa will prevail and she will find one under her tree." Mom, a university professor, had called the manufacturer in the US, but none were available. "Check around," they said, "maybe some yet stand on store shelves." So Mom sent the call out to the net .

Many readers began a global search for the wily Pony as part of their own holiday shopping forays.

Soon, another message came from Dublin. It seemed that a reader of the original message had a father who was a high-ranking executive in the toy company, and he had managed to acquire said pony where others had failed!

It was duly shipped in time to save Santa's reputation.

Part of the library's mission is to help remove barriers to accessing information, and part of this is removing barriers between people. One of the most interesting things about telecommunications is that it is the Great Equalizer. It lets all kinds of computers and humans talk to each other. The old barriers of sexism, ageism, and racism are not present, since you can't see the person to whom you're "speaking". You get to know the person without preconceived notions about what you think he is going to say, based on visual prejudices you may have, no matter how innocent.

Well, almost without visual prejudice. Electronic mail is not always a harmonic convergence of like souls adrift in the cyberspace cosmos: there are arguments and tirades (called "flames"). Sometimes you get so used to seeing a frequent poster's electronic signature that you know what he's going to say before he says it!

(1992 Wilson Library Bulletin, Jean armour Polly.)

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IV. Make up your own dialogues describing similar situations.

TALKING ABOUT COMPUTERS

Laura Delaney, a representative of a computer manufacture is talking to David Simpson, who is thinking of using a computer in his firm.

Mr Simpson: My problem is this. I've been wading through some literature about computers but it's still not clear what they really do.

Ms Delaney: Well a computer starts with an input. This is the part where data information is fed into the machine normally in the form of punched cards or punched tape.

Mr Simpson: But what can it do to this data?

Ms Delaney: It can process it in various ways. First, it can do various forms of arithmetic. It can add, subtract, multiply, divide and compare. It can also act as a memory and store information. And it gives your management reports on various questions. I trust I make myself clear.

Mr Simpson: But who decides what questions it's going to report on? Aren't we going to be at mercy of a bunch of system analysts and programmers or whatever you call them. Ms Delaney: Oh no. It's you - the management that determines what the output is to be. The system analyst only translates the data he is given and the requirements he is set into a language that the computer can understand. I'm not sure if I make myself clear.

Mr Simpson: Yes. Quite. But I read somewhere that computers can easily give the management a lot of extra work just thinking up stuff to feed into them. I've got the impression that a lot of people are running into trouble deciding what they want from the machine, if you understand my meaning.

Ms Delaney: In a sense you are right. But there can be one more trouble there you see, the computer itself works incredibly fast. So, it's important before renting or buying a computer to decide just how much work you'll be wanting to give it. And you've got to be able to give the programming personnel a clear idea of what exactly you do want out of it. That's reasonably clear, isn't it?

Mr Simpson: But still it seems to me that the management needs to study the machine

pretty thoroughly before they start using it.

Ms Delaney: Exactly. Then you can get real cooperation between management and programming personnel. That's why we're always happy to meet managers like yourself who really want to understand what's it all about. And if there is anything you haven't understood, please say so.

Mr Simpson: Could you please spare me more of your time on - let's see - how about Wednesday?

Ms Delaney: I'll be glad to, Mr Simpson.

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V. Translate the following dialogue from Russian into English and reproduce it in pairs. Do you agree that the world of language learning and teaching has now well and truly entered the computer age?

-Я слышал, что ты учишь французский с помощью компьютера. По-моему, научиться пользоваться компьютером труднее, чем научиться говорить пофранцузски.

-Ну, как ты не понимаешь! Я ведь всегда был любопытным, а в последнее время все эти незнакомые слова: дисплей, диски, программы, видео - меня просто заинтриговали. Мне стало интересно, смогу ли я в 40 лет научиться чему-нибудь новенькому. Ясно?

-Честно говоря, не очень.

-Ну, как не ясно. Я вставляю программу по французскому языку и учусь, как в классе. Только если я делаю какую-нибудь глупую ошибку, надо мной никто не смеется. О ней знают только компьютер и я. Уловил? Я всегда был стеснительным, а теперь не стесняюсь.

-Это-то да. Но ведь сколько сил ты потратил, чтобы освоить эту штуку. Наверное, больше, чем на изучение французского. По-моему, пусть молодые этим занимаются. А нам какой толк?

-Ну, я так не считаю. Мы с моей дочкой все вечера теперь проводим вместе. Да и вообще, компьютер нас сдружил. А то ведь мы много ссорились раньше.

-У тебя компьютер - средство для решения всех проблем, так?

-Так.

-Ну, тогда показывай, как им пользоваться.

-Да не трудно. Нажми вот эту клавишу. Так. Видишь, загорелась просьба набрать тот язык, на котором та будешь с ним разговаривать.

-Что? Я, кроме своего родного, никаких языков не знаю. И знать не хочу.

-Да не бойся. Это особый компьютерный язык. Перевод будет делаться автоматически.

-Ну, об этом я вообще ничего не слышал. В общем, дай-ка ты мне для начала какуюнибудь детскую книжку про компьютеры. Что-нибудь для младших школьников.

-Хорошо. Но если что-то будет неясно, я с удовольствием тебе все объясню.

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VI. What is the idea of the article "Computer Talk" by Alan Hamilton? What problems does the author try to draw the readers's attention to? Show the difference between computer terms and ordinary words?

COMPUTER TALK

This passage is from an article by Alan Hamilton which appeared in The Times. It offers a rather ironical review of a new dictionary which seems to confuse more than clarify as it deals with a very specialised language, that of information technology.

Meadows, Gordon and Singleton are lexicographers, but as far removed from the harmless drudgery of Samuel Johnson as it is possible to get. Their Dictionary of New Information Technology appears next week, and a fearsomely precise document it is. Still, we must be grateful to them; one never knows these days when a disaccommodated desk-top microprocessor is going to turn round and say in struggling English: 'Kindly assist me; my floppy disc has been struck by lightning.'

The thought of having to communicate with a machine is bad enough. The thought of machines communicating in their own private language is truly horrifying. Are they secretly discussing my incipient baldness? Are they exchanging gossip about that spinster Sunday school teacher two doors down that I don't know, but would dearly like to?

There are, however, some words of comfort in the introduction: 'Some of the more complex developments in electronic communications still require large (mainframe) computers. For example, translation from one language to another (computer translation) is still only moderately advanced, even with powerful machines. Computers that try to duplicate the problem-solving capabilities of human beings (expert systems) are likewise at an early (but already useful) stage.'

Well, thank IBM for that. It is a relief to be assured that the computer as yet knows nothing of irony, oxymoron, or the epic simile. But for how long?

But wait. Dr Meadows also says in his introduction: 'It is already possible to talk to a computer, and for speech to be accepted directly (voice input).'

The vocabulary of the machines, and of those humanoids who talk to them, is already extensive but subtly different from what you and I know as English. The Meadows dictionary, for example, defines accuracy as 'freedom from error', a definition at which the Oxford English Dictionary would not demur, but adds darkly: 'Should not be confused with precision.'

Not too surprising when you look up precision. That means, nowadays: 'The percentage of all items retrieved by a search on a particular topic which actually prove to be relevant to that topic.'

And that little word 'item' doesn't quite mean it used to mean. Now it is: 'a unit of information relating to a single document, person, etc., contained within a database'. Database? We won't go into that, or we'll be back to accuracy. Look instead at some others. You thought AI had to do with making cows pregnant, I shouldn't wonder. Not any more; it stands for artificial intelligence, and would therefore seem to have a rosy future even in non-computer fields - such as journalism and politics.

A few others. Firmware I would assume to be a kind of whalebone foundation garment for the spreading female figure, probably in pink. No: 'A computer program written into a storage medium from which it cannot be accidentally erased'. Gangpunching? A robust discussion on the relative merits of Glasgow Celtic and Rangers for the new soccer season? Alas, no: 'Punching information which has been read from a master card on to a sequence of other cards'.

Speakeasy. Not Good Time Charlie's where Dave the Dude and Harry the Horse are taking a few snorts but 'a high level programming language designed to have as many

commands as possible in plain English.' String? Long white stuff for mending a computer when bits fall off? Good try, but it is in fact; 'A group of items (you remember items, don't you?) which are arranged in sequence according to a set of rules, or a set of consecutive characters in a memory'.

Swami. An Indian holy man? Not on your life: 'Software-aided multifont input'.

Finally, in case you are still in a situation of total non-information retrieval, we had better look up computers, which are what this beastly vocabulary is all about: 'Computer: an electronic device which receives input data, puts them into storage, operates on them according to a program, and outputs the result to a user'.

But not, unfortunately, in English.

Commentary

Here are a few notes to help you to appreciate this piece.

'Kindly assist ... lightning' is a parody of the kind of sentence found in old foreign language phrase-books.

Well, thank IBM for that An updated variation on the expression 'thank God'. It is electronics companies like IBM that we have to thank for technological blessings.

AI means artificial insemination in standard English. The idea of artificial intelligence is extended here from the realm of computer language to its human connotation - useful to politicians and journalists!

The author goes on to examine definitions of a number of words taken from the new dictionary. He makes the most of the English language's wealth of meanings in a single word and contrasts possible interpretations.

Firmware could be read as 'firm wear' - a corset.

Gangpunching suggests (to him) fighting between rival groups of football fans. Speakeasy recalls an illegal drinking establishment as described by the American writer, Damon Runyan.

Snorts is slang for drinks.

In the final paragraph Hamilton's use of beastly in the sense of nasty is probably found only in British English, and suggests irritation. He ends with an example of computer jargon and comes to the conclusion that it is not English!

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VII. The following articles are devoted to some problems computers create in our life:

a)computers make the people lonely;

b)computers destroy our health.

What do think of these problems? Are they as serious as may seem at first sight?

ARE YOU A COMPUTER WIDOW?

A new social casualty is emerging: a computer widow. Like the football widow of the past, the computer widow is left in the dust as her husband cruises the information superhighway.

Sarah Kirchman, 29, an assistant to the VP of a New York fashion retailer, knows firsthand the perils of modern love: her husband Jim got hooked when he bought a high-end Apple Macintosh to start up a small business. "His computer is his mistress," she says bluntly of the terminal at which he spends 12 to 14 - hour days. "She occupies all his time - and then he has the nerve to show me everything he's done with her!" Sarah is still more amused than worried, but there is clearly some tension building. "When he crawls into bed at 2:30

in the morning, I can practically smell her on him."

There exist several types of computer-obsessed behaviour, claims Dr.Jozeph Cassins, a clinical psychologist and co-author of How Games Play People. "Some people withdraw into the computer because it gives them something they aren't getting from their spouses - be it interplay, exploration or gratification," he notes. "Others fulfil a need for privacy, or they simply be workaholics or perfectionists." Yes, but when your partner starts claiming that all night Iron Helix marathons are sapping his reproductive strength, it is time to download him. "If you're willing to be open and honest and not fault-finding, try talking it out," says Cassins. "Express that you are worried about the level of gratification he's getting out of the computer, and try to find a solution that's suitable for you." But the odds are he will come back on his own once his initial fascination wanes. "I'm only jealous now because of his excitement level," admits Sarah. "But I'm convinced it'll wear off. Of course," she adds with a touch of concern, "I'm sure that's what we all say."

(Keith Blanchard

"Marie Claire" Sept/Oct 1994 p.138)

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YOUR COMPUTERS & YOUR HEALTH: REAL AND IMAGINED PROBLEMS

The computer and its effects on health often evokes baseless fears on the part of the user, a sign no doubt that many people have not completely mastered work with computers. The computer has been accused of causing cataracts and myopia; of emitting harmful rays to the skin and the eyes. Some have even suspected the computer of increasing the risk of a miscarriage for women. The majority of these fears are unjustified. None of the many studies effectuated on the subject have established a causal link between visual deterioration and working on the computer. As for ionizing rays and electro-magnetic fields, they are always below permitted levels.

On the other hand intensive periods of work on the computer can lead to eye fatigue, stress and muscular-skeletal pains. Nonetheless these symptoms appear mostly when the user ignores a few elementary ergonomical rules, for instance if they subject themselves to unsatisfactory working conditions or use inadequate equipment. Further-more, certain individuals with particular medical problems will be at greater risk. The possible ill-effects of working on the computer are therefore inseparable from very wide ergonomical, medical and social factors. This is because the root of the problems associated with computing and their solution are more likely to be found through investigating work conditions and customs, general health of the user and even his life-style, than in the technical make up of the computer itself.

("Moscow News" № 20-21, 1995)

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CAN COMPUTERS CAUSE STRESS ?

According to studies, the use of computer at work could be a specific cause of psychological tension. Computer users, for example, may become frustrated or vexed if the computer has a slow response time when processing data. As the user does not know how long the computer will take to process the job, he remains very alert and attentive as he waits.

In the case of data input the poor and repetitive nature of the work can make the user feel unqualified. It also encourages a feeling of weariness, tediousness, or saturation.