VI. Read the text about the advantages and disadvantages of computers, choose the points you agree or disagree with. Explain your ideas. Complete the lists.

ADVANTAGES:

1. Computers save storage place. Imagine how much paper would have to be used, how many trees would have to be cut just to store information which is today on hard disks. Data stored on just one CD in paper form would use room of dozens square meters and would weight thousands of kilos. Nowadays techniques of converting data from paper into digital form have also tremendously developed. You can simply rewrite the text using a keyboard. If you are not good at it, you can use a scanner to scan necessary documents. At least there are special devices which can transfer our voice into text. Thanks to computers banks, private and government companies, libraries, and many other institutions can save millions of square meters and billions of dollars. Nowadays we have access to billions of information and due to the computer’s capabilities we actually don’t need to worry not only how to store them but also how to process them.

2. Computers can calculate and process information faster and more accurate than human. Sometimes there is false information in newspapers that due to the computer’s mistake something has failed. But it’s not truth because machines cannot make mistakes by its own. Sometimes it’s a short circuit, other time it’s a hardware problem but more often it is a human mistake, someone who designed and wrote the flawed computer program.

3. Computers improve our lives. They are very useful in the office work, we can write texts such as reports and analysis. Compared with old typewriters when using computers we don’t have to worry about making mistakes in typewriting because special programs help us to avoid them and we can change them any time. When the text is finished we can print it in as many copies as we want. At least but not at last, we can communicate with whole world very fast and cheap using the Internet.

4. Computers are user-friendly. We can watch videos and listen to music having only a PC. We don’t need a video player, TV and a stacking hi-fi any more. Furthermore, we don’t have to buy PCs which can take much room due to their other necessary components and wires. We can always buy a laptop or a palmtop which is even smaller, and use them outside anywhere we want.

DISADVANTAGES:

1. Computers are dangerous to our health. The monitors used to be dangerous for our eyesight. Nowadays due to technological development they are very safe. But there are other threats to our health than damaging our sight. Working with computers and permanent looking on the monitor can cause epilepsy, especially with children. Very often parents want to have a rest and don’t draw enough attention to how long their children use a computer. This negative effects also concerns TV screen.

2. Computers sometimes brake down. The biggest problem is when our hard disk brakes down because of the data stored on it. Other hardware is easily replaceable. But there are many ways of avoiding consequences of loosing our data, for example by saving it on CDs. Except hardware failures there are also software ones. For example, for many years Windows Operating System was very unstable and that’s why many other OS were written. Now the most common are Linux, Windows XP, MacOs (for Macintosh computers). Except of unstable OS another and maybe the main threat to our data are computer viruses. There are billions of them and every day new ones come into being. If you have the Internet connection you have to be particularly careful and download anti-virus programs. Fortunately, there are also many of them and most of them are freeware. You have to remember to download updates.

3. Violence and sex. The main threats for younger users of computers are the Internet pornography and bloody games. The presence of sexual content or the level of violence should be properly marked and parents are obliged to draw their attention to this issue. There are many extremely bloody games such as «grand theft auto», «quake» etc. For example, in GTA you are a member of mafia and to promote in crime hierarchy you should kidnap people, steal cars, robe banks etc. As a bonus you can also run over pedestrians. There are also many games in which you are a soldier and your mission is to kill as many enemies as possible. The other threat to our children is the Internet pornography. The availability of sexual content is enormous and you can do practically nothing to protect your child, especially when it’s interested in this matter.

4. The other threat is that you can be a computer addict. If you spend most of your free time using computer you should go to see a psychologist.

Part 3 Future trends in computing

Exercises to the subject:

I. Discuss the questions:

1. What do you think a trend is?
2. What trends in ICT do you think will affect our lives in the future? Make a list.

II. Match the texts (1-5) with the pictures (a-e). Which trends from your list are mentioned?

1) By all accounts, nanotechnology – the science of making devices from single atoms and molecules – is going to have a huge impact on both business and our daily lives. Nano devices are measured in nanometres (one billionth of a metre) and are expected to be used in the following areas:

- Nanocomputers. Chip makers will make tiny microprocessors with nanotransistors, ranging from 60 to 5 nanometres in size.

- Nanomedicine. By 2020, scientists believe that nano-sized robots, or nanobots, will be injected into the body’s bloodstream to treat diseases at the cellular level.

- Nanomaterials. New materials will be made from carbon atoms in the form of nanotubes, which are more flexible, resistant and durable than steel or aluminium. They will be incorporated into all kinds of products, for example stain-resistant coatings for clothes and scratch-resistant paints for cars.

2) Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the science of making intelligent machines and programs. The term originated in 1940s, when Alan Turing said: “A machine has artificial intelligence when there is no discernible difference between the conversation generated by the machine and that of an intelligent person.” A typical Al application is robotics. One example is ASIMO, Honda’s intelligent humanoid robot. Soon engineers will have built different types of android, with the form and capabilities of humans. Another Al application is expert systems – programs containing everything that an “expert” knows about the subject. In a few years, doctors will be using expert systems to diagnose illnesses.

3) Imagine you are about to take a holiday in Europe. You walk out to the garage and talk to your car. Recognizing your voice, the car’s doors unlock. On the way to the airport, you stop at ATM. A camera mounted on the bank machine looks at you in the eye, recognizes the pattern your iris and allows you to withdraw cash from your account.

When you enter the airport, a hidden camera compares the digitized image of your face to that of the suspected criminals. At the immigration checkpoint, you swipe a card and place your hand on a small metal surface. The geometry of your hand matches the code on the card, and the gate opens. You’re on your way.

Does it sound futuristic? Well, the future is here. Biometrics uses computer technology to identify people based on physical characteristics such as fingerprints, facial features, voice, iris, and retina patterns.

4) Ubiquitous computing, also known as pervasive computing, is a new approach in which computer functions are integrated into everyday life, often in an invisible way. Ubiquitous devices can be anything from smartphones to tiny sensors in homes, offices and cars, connected to networks, which allow information to be accessed anytime and anywhere – in other words, ubiquitously. In the future people will interact naturally with hundreds of these smart devices (objects containing a microchip and memory) every day, each invisibly embedded in our environment and communicating with each other without cables.

5) In the ideal smart home, appliances and electronic devices work in sync to keep the house secure. For example, when a regular alarm system senses that someone is breaking into the house, it usually alerts the alarm company and then the police. A smart home system would go further, turning on the lights in the home and then sending a text message to the owner’s phone. Motorola Homesight even sends images captured by wireless cameras to phones and PCs. Smart homes can remember your living patterns, so if you like to listen to some classical music when you come home from work, your house can do that for you automatically. They will also know when the house is empty and make sure all appliances are turned off. All home devices will be interconnected over a home area network where phones, cable services, home cinemas. Touch screens, smart mirrors and even the refrigerator will cooperate to make our lives more comfortable.

III. Read the texts from the previous exercise again and answer these questions:

1. Which unit of measurement is used in nanotechnology?

2. What are the advantages of nanotubes over regular materials?

3. What will doctors use expert systems for?

4. What features are analysed by biometrics?

5. Which trend refers to computers embedded in everyday devices, communicating with each other over wireless networks?

6. What will the alarm system do if someone breaks into a smart home?

7. How will devices be interconnected inside the smart home?

IV. Find words in the texts in the exercise II with the following meanings:

1. a microscopic robot, built with nanotechnology (text 1) …

2. a robot that resembles a human (text 2) …

3. biological identification of a person (text 3) …

4. integrated; inserted into (text 4) …

5. electrical devices, or machines, used in the home (text 5) …

V. Work in groups of three: A, B and C. Read your text and complete the parts of this table.

Text A

Telecoms applications will soon be bundled together in much the same way as office application suites are today. A major example is the electronic marketplace, which will bring customers and suppliers together in smart databases and virtual environments, with ID verification, encryption and translation. It will then implement the billing, taxation and electronic funds transfer, while automatically producing accounts and auditing. The whole suite of services will be based on voice processing, allowing a natural voice interface to talk to the computer, all the AI to carry out the request, and voice synthesis and visualisation technology to get the answer out.

Electronic money will be very secure but much more versatile than physical alternatives. E-cash can be completely global and could be used as a de facto standard. It does not have to be linked to any national currency, so can be independent of local currency fluctuations. Its growing use on the Net will lead to its acceptance on the street and we may hold a large proportion of our total funds in this global electronic cash. People will increasingly buy direct from customised manufacturers. Shops will be places where people try on clothes, not buy them. Their exact measurements can be sent instantly to the manufacturer as soon as they have chosen an outfit. The shops may be paid by the manufacturer instead.

Text B

Employment patterns will change, as many jobs are automated and new jobs come into existence to serve new technologies. Some organizations will follow the virtual company model, where a small core of key employees is supported by contractors on a project by project basis, bringing together the right people regardless of where they live. The desks they will use will have multiple flat screens, voice interfaces, computer programs with human-like faces and personalities, full-screen videoconferencing and 3D sound positioning. All this will be without any communication cables since the whole system uses high capacity infrared links. The many short-term contractors may not have enough space in their homes for an office and may go instead to a new breed of local telework centre.

Of course, workers can be fully mobile, and we could see some people abandon offices completely, roaming the world and staying in touch via satellite systems. Even in trains and planes there may be infrared distribution to each seat to guarantee high bandwidth communication. One tool they may have in a few years is effectively a communicator badge. This will give them a voice link to computers across the network, perhaps on their office desk. Using this voice link, they can access their files and email and carry out most computer-based work. Their earphones will allow voice synthesis to read out their mail, and glasses with a projection system built into the arms and reflectors on the lenses will allow a head-up display of visual information. Perhaps by 2015, these glasses could be replaced by an active contact lens that writes pictures directly onto the retina using tiny lasers.

Text C

Finally and frivolously to the very long term. By around 2030, we may have the technology to directly link our brain to the ultra-smart computers that will be around then, giving us so much extra brainpower that we deserve a new name, Homo Cyberneticus. In much the same time frame, geneticists may have created the first biologically optimised humans, Homo Optimus. It would make sense to combine this expertise with information technology wizardry to make something like the Borg, Homo Hybridus, with the body of an Olympic athlete and a brain literally the size of the planet, the whole global superhighway and every machine connected to it. Over time, this new form may converge with the machine world, as more and more of his thoughts occur in cyberspace. With a complete backup on the network, Homo Hybridus would be completely immortal. Ordinary biological humans would eventually accept the transition and plain old Homo Sapiens could become voluntarily extinct, perhaps as early as 2200.

VI. Make predictions for 2020 for each of the following. You may wish to use the verbs given in the exercise: develop; disappear; increase; replace; take over.

Student independent study:

Computers in business

Computers are used to help businesses automate the collection and processing of data, and the production and distribution of information. Of course, these tasks can be accomplished manually, but factors such as increased complexity of the business environment, rapid growth, increased competition, the value of information, and even social pressure are encouraging businesses to adopt computers as solutions to many problems.

One of the earliest applications for computers was accounting and bookkeeping, activities that are concerned with recording and processing the basic business transactions of an organization. An order entry system accepts customer orders, checks the customer’s credit status, and verifies that the ordered items are in stock. An accounts receivable system keeps track of money received or owed by customers. An accounts payable system keeps track of money owed to suppliers. In a business that produces goods, an inventory system keeps track of the goods on hand for sale or shipment to customers. A payroll system calculates employee paychecks and keeps track of withholding taxes, employee benefits, insurance, and dues. A general ledger system summarizes all of the basic transactions and is used to produce the information concerning the financial status of the business, such as the chart of accounts, income state­ments, and balance sheets. Once business transactions have been entered, or input, into the computer and processed, businesspeople can receive the computer’s output or information. Because the computer is such a versatile tool, it can produce information in the form of reports, charts, diagrams, graphs, tables, illustrations, maps, and even videos, all of which help us to interpret and understand a complex and dynamic business environment.

Almost all retailing organizations — from department stores to supermarkets — are extremely competitive. To meet the pressure of competition, retail organizations are changing their structure from being organized around the flow of goods and services to being organized around the flow of information. Computers are helping to accomplish that change.Increasingly, retailers such as department stores and supermarkets are using computers to collect data about their sales and customers at the point of sale. Point-of-sale systems are computer-based devices located at the point at which goods and services are paid for. Scanners are input devices that examine a pattern such as a bar code and convert it into a representation suitable for processing. Supermarkets have long used scanners at checkout counters to record sales. In such an application, scanners reduce labor costs, make the checkout process more accurate by eliminating misreading of price tags and improper cash register reading, and move customers through the checkout line faster, thus enhancing customer service. Today, scanners serve as input devices to sophisticated computer systems that identify best-selling products, eliminate less popular products, and provide electronic coupons for discounts on promotional items, and, if desired, subtract the amount of purchase directly from the customer’s bank account.

Hotels and restaurants also use computers to become familiar with their customer’s needs and wants. In hotels, front-desk systems retrieve a guest record when a credit card is passed through a special reader. Some larger hotels keep guest preference profiles on computer. When the guest checks in, everything is ready.

The fast-food industry is beginning to apply computers to the task of improving the preparation, cooking, and delivery of food. Managers in the fast-food industry believe that automating mundane tasks will free employees to place more emphasis on the customer-service side of the business.

I. Copy the underlined words and word-combinations, translate them into Ukrainian and learn them.

II. Read the text and answer the following questions:

1. What do computers help businesses perform?

2. What factors are encouraging businesses to adopt computers as solutions to many problems?

3. How are computers used in accounting and bookkeeping?

4. What are the reasons of using computers in retailing?

5. Why do hotels and restaurants use computers?