A COMPUTERIZED WORLD Since the first computer was made in the late fifties, the technology has developed extremely. Computers which tookthe place of a living-room then, are now being made increditcard-formats. More and more areas are being taken overby the computer. As computers are capable of handling large amounts ofdata in a very short time, they are well suited forwordprocessing. I guess that it won't be long till all the paper-archives are replaced by magnetic tapes and diskettes.
Adiskette can contain much more data than a written page, andit takes less place! It is possible to get the Norwegian telephone book on just one diskette.In near future, a new area will be taken over by computers, namely maps. Different routes are stored on onesingle compact-disk. Imagine, simply insert the CD into the CD-driver in your car, and tell the computer where to go. Therest will be done automatically. This will be 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 wearspecial electronic glasses and an electronic suit. Fastened tothe suit are sensors, which send information to the maincomputer. This computer works with the data and displays them on the electronic spectacles. This is a technique which usethree-dimentional views, therefore the scenery seemsincredibly realistic. If you want to be a boxer, simply change the scenery on the main computer, and you are in the ring.Today, many kids have got video games.
You could say these games are the present's answer to ludo and monopoly. Ina way, it is a great advantage that the kids are being presented to computors at an early age, because they willdefinitely have to use them later, when they start to work. In the future there will be few occupations which won't usecomputors, one way or another. But the videogames are oftenbeing presented as something negative, which hinder the kidsfrom doing homework and other more useful activities. Thispartially true, if they do much of it. But generally, I thinkthe young people's contact with computers is positive. In Norway today, it is getting more common to have acomputer at home. You can use a personal computer to keephousehold-budgets or other economics. It is also possible toget in touch with your bank and transwer money while you're inyour sitting-room. It is possible to contact other databases and gatherinformation from them. The use of computers has lead to othercriminal actions. "Hacking" is one of them. A "hacker" stealsand manipulates information from other databases. These crimescan be very harmful. In The USA, hackers have managed to breakinto NASA's database.
The computer-programmes, the software, are extremely highpriced, sometimes they are even more expensive than thehardware. Therefore it is not unusual to make copies of these programmes. This is strictly illegal, but nobody seems tocare, because it is difficult to control it. Softwareproducers 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 thesoftware, I doubt that there will ever be a successfull way tohinder this.
Forside
