Менеджеры и менеджмент (Executives and Management) - 18 стр.

UptoLike

ВУЗ: 

ТГТУ | Тамбов

Составители: 

Рубрика: 

192
is thus the key buzzword in telecommunications circles today. No more can personal computers operate as "is-
lands of computing unable to communicate."
D. The ultimate, perhaps, is a computer that can understand continuous speech patterns, regardless of who
is speaking, and translate an unlimited vocabulary into typed words of action. It might dip into the corporate
database, for example, and pull out sales numbers organized by salesman, by quarter and by region-without
anyone typing in the commands. Such multiple-speaker, general-purpose speech recognition systems may be no
more than 15 years off.
E. As recently as the mid-19th century, when telegraph lines crossing the North American continent
quickly spread the news of President Lincoln's assassination throughout the country, the absence of transatlantic
cables meant Europe did not learn of the event for nearly a week.
F. If the executive wants data out of a file, he simply touches "file cabinet" on his screen's main menu. Up
pops a picture of a file cabinet. When he touches the drawer, it opens to reveal the folder. To add, modify or
transmit information, the executive touches another spot in the screen, and then talks into a built-in microphone.
His dictation is stored on a digital disk from which he can retrieve it for transcription into the word processor.
G. For the bulk of human history, communication has crept along at a snail's pace. Ancient South Ameri-
can Indians advanced it by organizing elaborate relays of runners to carry important messages. Elsewhere, sea-
faring technology allowed many cultures to send word by ship. And beacon lights combined with a dash by
horseback heralded the beginning of the American war of independence against Britain.
H. Today, a personal computer or a terminal connected to a mainframe computer needs to serve as the hub
of a complex information system and should include at least the capability to retrieve and transfer information.
Added features, such as decision-support software, word-processing, calendars, project management, and even
teleconferencing – at least with voice if not with video – are being added.
I. Amid all the marketing glitter, there is plenty of substance to this technological battle. That's because,
while the universal limit on speed cannot be violated, the new technologies promise to improve what might be
called the net effective rate of communications.
J. Pentias envisages the day when the executive desktop will be an integrated information system. "If you
find a quote in a magazine you like, you should simply be able to circle it and have it immediately stored by the
computer, "he says, "regardless of whether you're sitting to the left or to the right of your desk. If you have an
important discussion on the phone, it should be immediately transcribed and stored".
K. Fibre-optic communication is perhaps the epoch-making technical accomplishment of the 20th century
in the field of communications.
T a s k 4. Memorize the following vocabulary:
to obsess, to captivate, to infuriate, to dominate, millennium, underestimation, eventually, ultimately, dazzling,
amazing, to launch a quest, information-processing machines, a calculator, elaborate, to dub, to generate ven-
ture capital, to toss, a programmable machine/device, breakthrough, to outline, ingenious, contraption, contro-
versy, to crack secret codes, to ponder, versatile, prescient, acolyte, feasibility.
T a s k 5. Read and translate the text from the magazine "News-
weekExtra", Winter 1997-98.
The Computer
By Steven Levy
As the century comes to a close, the technology that obsesses us, captivates us, infuriates us and dominates
us is the computer. But ultimately, this most amazing of inventions won't be seen as an artifact of the old mil-
lennium but the defining force of the one just dawning. Do you really think that we're already into the computer
age? That's a gross underestimation of what the computer will eventually do to change our world, our lives and
perhaps the nature of reality itself.
Underestimation, as it turns out, has been a constant in the brief but dazzling History of this amazing ma-
chine. Surprisingly, the tale begins in the 19th century, when Charles Babbage, an English mathematician born
in 1791, launched a lifelong quest to build information-processing machines–first a calculator called the Differ-
ence Engine and then a more elaborate programmable device dubbed the Analytical Engine. He lacked–among

Страницы