Is Computing Healthy?

1.

• Can all this computing be good for you?

• Are there any unhealthy side effects?

• How bad can it be, sitting in a padded chair in a climate-controlled office?

• Are computer users getting bad radiation?

• What about eyestrain?

• And what about the age-old back problem, updated with new con­cerns about workers who hold their hands over a keyboard?

• What about repetitive-action injury also known as carpal tunnel syn­drome?

• What about the risk of miscarriage?

2.

• What is done to reduce VDT problems?

• How can workers take care of themselves?

• What is the science studying human factors related to computers called?

• What does a properly designed workstation take into account?

• What does an ergonomically - designed product mean? Name some.

• How to cope with the problems to avoid disease?

• Do experts recommend any coping mechanisms?

• What do you have to avoid any unhealthy side effects? What should you have?

• What do you do sitting at your home PC to exercise?

Text 8B₂

Read & get ready to give advice.

Checking your own security

A Personal Checklist for Hardware

With the subject of health security fresh in your mind, now is a good time to consider a checklist for your own personal computer hardware. We will confine this list to a computer presumed to be in the home.

1. No eating, drinking, or smoking near the computer.

2. Do not place the computer near open windows or doors.

3. Do not subject the computer to extreme temperatures.

4. Clean equipment regularly.

5. Place a cable lock on the computer.

6. Use a surge protector.

7. Store diskettes properly in a locked container.

8. Maintain backup copies of all files.

9. Store copies of critical files off site.

NB A surge protector is a device that protects a computer from excessive voltage (spikes and power surges) in the power line.

Make up Dialogue 8.8.

Computer Hardware Security

• Why shouldn’t you eat, drink, or smoke near the computer?

• Is it wise to place the computer near open windows/doors?

• Why can’t you subject the computer to extreme temperatures?

• What should you do with computer equipment regularly?

• How to protect the computer against unwanted entry?

• Why is it important to use a surge protector?

• Where can one store diskettes? Why?

• What should you do to be sure not to lose files?

• Where should you store copies of critical files?

8.9 Render the following into English in brief.

Опасные Игры

Компьютеры становятся все более привычным атрибутом офи­сов и контор, школьных классов и даже детских садов. Проведенные американскими учеными исследования показа­ли, что переменные электромагнитные поля частотой 60 Гц могут вызывать глазные заболевания (в частности - катаракту), злокаче­ственные опухоли, снижают иммунный статус организма. Существует предположение о связи между частотой возник­новения опухолей у детей и магнитными полями.

Специалисты из США, Канады, Испании и Швеции изучали воздействие переменных магнитных полей дисплейных мониторов на неблагоприятное течение беременности у женщин. У женщин, которые во время беременности проводили не ме­нее 20 часов в неделю за компьютерными терминалами, вероят­ность выкидышей на 80% выше, чем у женщин, выполнявших ту же работу без помощи видеотерминалов.

Помните, что:

• при работе за видеотерминалом необходимо располагаться на расстоянии вытянутой руки от экрана;

• соседние дисплейные мониторы должны находиться от вас на расстоянии не менее 2 м 22 см.

Dramatize Dialogue 8.10.

Computer Games

• Daddy, I’d like to ask you about computer games. Everybody in my class can play many of them. But none of us know how they are created.

• Computer games are becoming more and more popular - some say too popular.

• But where do they come from? How do they work?

• Each game instruction is very simple. It is the combination of instructions, in a very long list, that makes footballers score goals and spacecraft fly in computer games.

• How are the commands made? How does the computer understands them?

• This list of commands is what people refer to as a 'program'. The computer understands it in the form of numbers, but there are different languages through which human words are translated into numbers for the computer. Sometimes the instructions tell the computer to show something on the screen.

• The image on the screen is changing like smoke, what is its principle?

• The screen has hundreds of little dots on it which are called pixels. Each pixel has a number so that the computer can recognize it. If you give the computer the number that means 'red' and the number of a dot it will make that dot red.

• Isn’t it hard work? One should give commands to the machine step by step, am I right?

• You may well say so. Repeat instructions like this thousands and thousands of times, and you have a sports, an adventure, anything. Then you have to work out each section of the game very carefully.

• I want to be someone who writes the list of instructions or a program for computers. How is such a person called?

• A programmer. Computers are like children - you have to give them very careful instructions so they know what to do.

• I see. Even this little fighter on the screen is made up of hundreds of tiny dots, isn’t it?

• You get it right.

• Thank you, Dad.

• You are welcome.

Text 8C