计算机还被广泛应用于卫生保健。体积小价格又不贵（价钱在 1000 美元以下）的个人电脑已被安装在救护车上用来迅速测定伤残人及其他患者的位置。这些个人电脑也被用来诊断潜在的问题，并在事故现场开药治疗。另外，还开发出来了人们能在玩游戏的同时达到减肥目的的录像游戏。某些软件程序能帮你解除紧张和压力。
在家中计算机能用于娱乐、教育、记录个人预算、制订饮食计划及决定下周买哪些食品等。你能用个人电脑与亲朋好友和世界任何地方的商业合作伙伴进行交流，只要他们也有个人电脑并能进入电子邮件网。个人计算机能用做复杂的安全系统的核心部分。这些电脑对热、烟、水质破坏等很敏感，它们可以根据设定的程序自动地打电话通知你或者拨通警察局或消防部门。
计算机被广泛用于娱乐和休闲业。计算机用来分析和创作优美的乐曲。你甚至能够通过家庭电脑收到由电话线寄送给你的小说，这些电子小说可以存储在你的电脑里，且随时都可以打印出来。
就教育而言，人们可以利用计算机辅助指令帮助学生学习其他科目。今天，计算机辅助指令程序能为一岁到退休年龄的各个年龄段的人学习使用。何时学都不为早，何时学也不为晚。
在军事上，计算机用来设计常规武器和战略武器。这些军用计算机是特殊用途的计算机——昂贵的、只能起一种作用的计算机。
我们已经发现计算机无处不在。
【Reading Materials】
The Personal DigitalAssistant
In the 1980s no-one who was anyone went anywhere without their Filofax. By the end of the 1990s it has been replaced by its digital equivalent—the Personal Digital Assistant （PDA）. APDA is effectively a handheld PC， capable of handling all the normal tasks of its leather-bound ancestor — address book， notepad， and phone list. However， most PDAs offer many applications besides， such as spreadsheet， word processor， database， financial management software， clock， calculator and games.
What made PDAs so attractive to many PC users was the ability to transfer data between the handheld device and a desktop PC and to convert data to and from existing applications — in other words， to synchronize data between the mobile and desktop environments. In the early days inter-connection was via a serial cable. Modern PDAs achieve connectivity either via an infrared port or a special docking station.
The allure of the PDA in the realm of business isn’t hard to fathom. Small， portable and powerful technology has always held great appeal. For style-conscious users looking for the latest and greatest in gadgetry， the PDA is a natural accompaniment to the other essential business item of the 1990s — the mobile phone. The increasing power of these devices has led to growing interest in the corporate arena. Where all that’s required is simple data manipulation combined with basic Internet connectivity， the PDA is an attractive option.
Because of their size， entering data into a PDA requires either a tiny keyboard or some form of handwriting recognition system. The problem with the former is that they are two small for touch-typing. The problem with the latter is the difficulty in making it work effectively. The solution to the handwriting recognition problem has proven to be the Graffiti handwriting system. This relies on a touch-screen display and a simplified alphabet — which takes about 20 minutes to learn — for data entry. Typically， PDAs with the Graffiti system provide the option to write directly onto the display which translates the input into text， or to open up a dedicated writing space which also provides on-line examples and help.
The end result was that by the late 1990s the PDA market had become segmented between users of the two major form factors； devices that have a keyboard and stylus-based palm size devices that don’t have a keyboard. The choice depended on personal preference and the level of functionality required.
By late-2001 the demand for PDA devices with built-in keyboards had waned significantly， with few manufacturers besides Psion supporting the form factor. It appeared that consumers were unwilling to pay the same price for a keyboard-equipped PDA as they would for a more powerful and more versatile low-end notebook. Another reason for their decline in popularity can be attributed to the development of plug-in keyboards for palm-sized PDAs.
【New Words】
PDA
个人数字助理
Filofax 备忘记事本
infrared port 红外端口
Graffiti 涂写，乱写
1.3 Notebook Computers
Notebook computers are the further development of PCs. The primary innovation is to ensure the performance and speed of the new generation of notebook computers， so that users who are used to their powerful PCs on thedesktops need not computers while they are on the road （traveling on the duty， doing business outside office， interviewing guests or audience in public places， or even accessing to Internet anywhere they go）. Today， notebook computers are no longer the “luxury toy” of executives as they are now more affordable than ever before.
Higher performance of CPUs， multimedia technology， as well as bigger memory and large-capacity silicon chips allow manufactures to put in fancier things into notebook computers. For example， as some executive prefer their notebook computers and their desktop PCs to be one system， so docking stations are provided. For Apple’s Duo line， models 210 and 230， two docks are available， which provide their users with the mobility of notebook computers with the advantages of a desktop base. The Duo allows users to dock the notebook computer at home or the office， and charge the batteries while they use the machine as a desktop， with extra hard drives or DVD-ROM. IBM provides a portable docking station for its Thinkpad 750 series that has an AT-bus card slot， and interfaces for five SCSI （Small Computer System Interface） devices， full-motion video， loudspeakers and space for mass-storage DVD-ROM. Today， a unattached notebook computer can also satisfy the user’s needs.
Taking into consideration that executive on the move work under some demanding space constraints like on an airplane， notebook computers are supporting other methods of input besides keyboard. Compaq’s Concerto notebook computer has an interactive keyboard and pen. The pen is an intelligent pointing and input device. It is the ideal mouse replacement， since it can initiate a command just by tapping the screen. Documents can be edited with “gestures” redefined symbols for common edits like inserting or deleting characters. The pen-keyboard combination may have particular advantages inAsian languages.
