Computer

	THE COMPUTER

	If an alien were to ask the meaning of the word 'computer', how easily could you explain? The shortest answer we could come up with was: "An electronic device for the storage and processing of information, consisting of 'hardware', or physically tangible equipment, and 'software', or coded instructions, each being required to make the other viable". What sort of computer one should have is another matter altogether. To whom one can turn for advice before purchasing is a tricky question. The way we look at it, you need to decide what it is you will realistically be wanting to do with the computer once you have it. Most of us start out thinking we will just be using our first computer as a glorified typewriter but, before long, we are creating albums full of photographs we have either taken with a digital camera or scanned and accumulated on the hard drive, playing one sort of game or another and/or having a go at creating web sites, whether to put online or just to amuse ourselves offline. It makes sense to get a computer that is powerful enough to do the things we are likely to be attracted to doing but not so powerful that we half-bankrupt ourselves to acquire something we will never really need. It is easy to get caught up in 'the latest thing' fever but, unfortunately, as with road vehicles, the latest models are never the latest for long. One-upmanship is as silly when applied to computers as to automobiles - it displays a pathetic failure to see that what you possess is not as important as what you are or what you can do. If you have acquired the right computer and software for you, it will not matter that others have faster, more powerful machines with vastly greater storage capacity than yours and, quite frankly, anyone who tries to give you the impression that it does matter deserves your sympathy as a sad case.

THE COMPUTER