Do we really need them so much? by Barbora Misakova

Computers, internet and various technical devices – are they our friends or foes? They help us to do our work quicker, easier, and we don’t even have to move. We can be sitting in the office, drinking some coffee or tea, you know that – just relax. But even though we are actually doing nothing, we are still working of course. People can hardly remember the times when there were no computers. No magical boxes which can connect us with other people around the world, no handy looks-like-TV things. People were doing everything manually. Bank clerks, women working in the post office, shopkeepers – they all were using just their heads and hands. But everything was working or not? Even though the things went more slowly than now, no one was complaining. It’s a bit ironic, that now when we have computers things are sometimes even more complicated and usually it affects not only two or three people, but hundreds and thousands of people. When we just imagine some problem with software in the store – queue is longer and longer, people are waiting and are still more impatient. And it is just because this machine (usually working normally) which now just refuse to work! Are computers really our friends or are they just complicated our already messy world?
The latest affair with computer breakdown refers to a Federal Aviation Administration facility which processes flight plans for half of the U.S. Just a little, simple problem with computer software caused flight delays around the country. Just imagine that during 24-hour period FAA processes more than 300,000 flight plans in the United States! So you can imagine that problems when one simple problem arise there. Failure in a communication link which transmits the data to a facility in Salt Lake City caused by the words of spokespersons of most American airports about hundreds flight delays. FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen in Atlanta informed there were no safety issues just problems with data transport. As she said officials were speaking to pilots on planes on the ground and in the air as well. Fortunately this time nothing bad happened, except chaos and lot of flight delays. But every time something similar happens I am asking myself if it is really such a necessity to rely on these unstable machines so much?


related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080826/ap_on_re_us/faa_communication_breakdown;_ylt=Anzawx23VfXaFfpWw0ydJuSs0NUEido

by Barbora Misakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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