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.