Computerized World Essay, Research Paper

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Computerized World

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Since the first computer was made in the late fifties,

the technology has developed extremely. Computers which took

the place of a living-room then, are now being made in

creditcard-formats. 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

wordprocessing. I guess that it won’t be long till all the

paper-archives are replaced by magnetic tapes and diskettes. A

diskette can contain much more data than a written page, and

it 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 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 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 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-dimentional 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.

Today, many kids have got video games. You could say

these games are the present’s answer to ludo and monopoly. In

a way, it is a great advantage that the kids are being

presented to computors at an early age, because they will

definitely have to use them later, when they start to work. In

the future there will be few occupations which won’t use

computors, 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 Norway today, it is getting more common to have a

computer at home. You can use a personal computer to keep

household-budgets or other economics. It is also possible to

get in touch with your bank and transwer money while you’re in

your sitting-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 USA, hackers have managed to break

into NASA’s database.

The computer-programmes, 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

programmes. 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 successfull way to

hinder this.