Those were the words of a famous TV robot warning his owner of some danger in the area. Not only can computers be used as dangerous weapons, but they can be dangerous for users, as well.
More and more often news stories tell us of a "hacker" somewhere gaining access to a government, company, or personal computer and doing all kinds of damage. These hackers can erase important files, change information, and steal information from a hard disk. Often this is done without the computer owner even knowing about it.
The most common computer dangers are probably the computer virus and the Trojan Horse. A virus is an invisible program that is passed to a computer from another computer on the Internet or by some other exchangeable media: floppy disks, Zip disks, or CD-ROMs. Some are harmless and merely flash a message on your screen. Others can destroy the very structure of your hard disk. A Trojan Horse is similar, but it appears to be a normal program. However, when the program is run, it does something completely different. Computers using Windows systems are in much greater danger of these attacks than those using Macintosh systems.
Finally, your computer can actually hurt YOU! This is true especially if you spend a lot of time on your computer. Excessive typing or mouse-clicking, or an uncomfortable keyboard position can cause serious damage to your hands and wrists. An uncomfortable chair or poor seating position can cause back pain and even damage to your spine and nerves. A flickering monitor or bad room lighting can cause eyestrain, headaches, and dizziness. The study of how to prevent these problems and make all things easier for humans to use is called ergonomics.
Questions
dizziness - (dizzy) feeling as if the room is spinning, a loss of balance
ergonomics - study of how the human body interacts with tools, switches, controls, etc.
excessive - too much
eyestrain - tiredness and pain in the eyes from overuse
flicker(ing) - rapid changes in the brigtness of a computer screen or other light source
hacker - person who can access parts of a computer program or system that is normally not allowed
media - (plural of medium) material or substance that carries or holds something. In this case, the different portable drives hold the data so that you can move it from one location to another.
nerves - the parts of our body that feel (touch, heat, pain, etc.) and carry that information to our brains
spine - the main bone in the human back, the backbone
weapons - tools used to attack enemies or defend oneself (knives, guns, etc.)
wrist - the flexible joint bewteen the hand and arm
Do you know of anyone who's computer had a virus? What happened?
Have you ever felt ill after using a computer for a long time? What happened?
Do you have any tools or devices that are very difficult to use? Do you have any that "just feel good" to use? These can be simple things like a pen or a hairbrush, or they could be complex things like an automobile. In your opinion, what makes the differencebetween an item with good ergonomics and one with bad ergonomics?
Think about the computer you're using. Is it comfortable to use? What ab
out the work area where you are sitting? Is there a way to make your position more comfortable?
Two sites with information about viruses and virus protection:
viruscenter.lycos.com/ www.symantec.com/avcenter/
A site about virus hoaxes:
www.kumite.com/myths/
Two sites about Lost in Space, the 1960's TV classic:
www.scifi.com/lostnspace/ www.lostinspacetv.com/