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Opinion
University Daily Kansan, October 5, 1982
Computers inspire awe, dread
The computer.
It has awesome memory capability. It can solve equations faster than a speeding mathematician. It is able to leap through difficult problems in a single button-pushing. And not only can it teach students how to add and subtract, but it can play matchmaker for somebody in seventh grade.
For efficiency and time-saving, it seems that the computer just can't be beat. But can this machine be a threat?
Possibly.
Computers are everywhere today. They are used for aviation, banking, business, biology, education, law, medicine, music, photography.
HAL KLOPPER
postal service, security devices and traffic control.
Walt Disney's "Tron" has introduced computers to the art of film making. Thousands of dollars a day are plugged into computerized video games, and the U.S. Army is even considering their machines to help children with cancer. The Boy Scouts of America now has a computer merit badge.
As a matter of fact, what you're reading now is a product of the computer age. This column was entered, edited and set into type by people working with video display terminals.
It seems obvious that computers are not just a passing fat, like the Hula Hoop or minikind. They have quickly become an important part of American life. Whereas the 1970s was coined the "Me" Generation, the 1980s may well be looked back on as the Computer Generation.
"It will be the generation where people become computer-literate," suggests John Seitz, associate director of the academic computer center. "I think that 10 years from now, everybody will have a microcomputer in his home."
But what bothers me is the possibility of people's relieving too much on computers.
There's no denying the popularity and efficiency of computers; they have made large cuts in production time for goods and services. They can provide facts and figures in a fraction of the time it would take an unaided human being.
Lewis Stewart, a 14-year-old junior high school student, has a fifth-grade learning ability but is a whiz with computers. He told TIME magazine, "I love these machines. I've got all this power at my fingerprints. Without compartment what I'd know of. With them. I'm somebody."
Time also reported, "In Lexington, Mass,
one legendary 16-year-old nerd (computer
whiz) got so deeply immersed in computers
that he never had to leave the terminal after school and barely sat down for
meals. The only way his father could get him away from the terminal was to go down to the cellar and throw the house's main power switch, cutting off all electricity."
In June, three executives of the Hitchi computer company were arrested by the FBI.
The question here is not directed "at computers. Rather, it concerns the damaging effects we can allow the machines to have on those who use them.
"I don't think computers are good or bad; it's people who make them good or bad," says Seitz. "A computer can do only what you tell it to, but extremely fast."
Are some people so dependent on computers that they don't know what they're without? Or are they so dependent on computers that cause people to steal and risk imprisonment? Is the computer becoming man's best friend?
"It's too early to tell," says Tom Beikeer, chairman of communication studies. He said that working with a computer was "deeply impersonal and personal at the same time." Although a person is getting more of a personal contact with the machine, he also is temporarily cutting out communication with other people.
And sometimes it is not so temporary.
Hold on! We are on a computer day.
"I'ts not uncommon to come in here (the computer center) to find people live computing 24 hours a day," admitted Seitz.
This is not to say that those who work with computers a few hours a week are heading
towards an introverted future. Hardly. But for those who are more dependent on these inanimate machines, it must be realized that they cannot and can be compared to another human being.
As reliable as they may be, computers have their faults. They cannot compute emotions. They also can make mistakes. And the results can be devastating
Take the North American Air Defense Command as an example. This is where nuclear attacks on the United States are to be conducted, and the response depends on these machines to work properly.
Yet, Newsweek reported, "During an 18-month period, the North American Air Defense Command had 151 false alarms. Our survival also depends on the proper conduct of Soviet personnel and computers. Aloebism is a major health problem in the Soviet Union and is at least as likely to exist among their military as it is among others."
Computers don't kill people. But some people, using computers on a much larger scale than KU's computer center, could lead ourselves and others to unfortunate consequences.
The horrible, pessimistic thought of mass destruction is also a very real possibility.
I am not trying to undermine the value of computers and their operators; they have become a cornerstone in today's progress. They have even landed on the moon.
But let's hope that a visit to our terminals does not end in our termination.
For those you unfortunate enough to have actually studied last week, I've got a little advice to pass on about this television season's winners and losers. First and foremost, there are a lot of losers and only a handful of winners. No surprises here.
New television season has few—very few-bright spots
Second, to those of you already inking up, getting ready to pen a cruel missive to me, bearing my supreme lack of taste in supporting television, let me say this to save us both some aggravation: Culture is culture, and television is television, and never the twnail shall meet, or whatever. If you are silly enough to think I'm recommending this as a way of life, you're nuts. It's an escape, and if you've never had to escape, then congrats.
First, let's look at the five worst new series. I had to struggle to keep the number that low, but this way the competition is much more intense.
TRACEE HAMILTON
1. "Joonie Loves Chachi." I never thought I'd come a valley Girl, but girl me with a spoon. Better yet, pitch me with a fork. This is gross stuff. The only redeeming face of this Thursday's show was the way she conveys to convey that she has a wonderful personality hidden somewhere in that ridiculous character.
2. "Silver Spoons." The only Saturday night I'll have off the entire semester, and I wasted it on this trash. Ricky Schroeder, who made you cry in "The Champ," will make you wretch in "Spoons." He plays a brilliant kid who's into computers and who goes to live with his father, who is rich and has lots of video games and the brain of Donkey Kong. I don't remember the name of the guy who plays the father, and I'm doing him a favor.
3. "Family Ties." This Wednesday night disaster is based on the notion grown-up '60s radicals who try to raise a family make funny material. They don't the characters are weaker than they appear. We learn one of those precocious, make-the-hit-on the back-of-your-stand-on-the-end types.
4. "Powers of Matthew Star." Remember "Mr. Merlin?" Or are you still trying to forget, like me? Well, the good-looking young buck from that disaster has another dog to add to his list. He plays an extraterrestrial who has some sort of power, although you never quite figure out how much more he can do. The magic is, but he doesn't wiggle his nose like Samantha in "Bewitched" or blink like
"Jenice." What he does is bomb, like "Hello, Larry."
5. "Gloria." Sally Struthers returns to Sunday night, and her new series is only slightly worse than "Archie Bunker's Place" itself is these days. She's a vet's assistant, and Joey is all grown up. The producers use the old soap opera trick—take the kid off the show, send him away for a few years, and he'll miraculously reappear as a teenager with lots of problems. Well, Michael (Menthead) is living in a commune, so Gloria is on her own. The old Gloria was never helpless or although she was at times dingy. She stood on everything (remember how she used to pull the hairs on the back of Archie's hand?).
Well, they've turned her into Jello, and it's not too believable. She whinks about making it on her own, and the only funny part of the show is that she gives Michael a Bronx cheer over the phone.
Now you're expecting me to pick five good new shows, right? It'll I can think of two that I could tolerate. The rest is up to you. This erstwhile critically, incidentally, refused to watch "Bring 'Em Brass" (the musical). You won't see "Voyagers" because "Raiders of the Lost Ark" — and Harrison Ford — can never be duplicated.
1. "Cheers." It's in a great spot, this Thursday night sitcom, right between "Taxi" and "Fame" on NBC. And it's not bad. The bar owner is an ex-major league pitcher who quit basketball because he was an alcoholic. The waitress and the pitcher are both also part of any show about a bar always provides amusing "regulars." No cheers yet, but some good beaty applause.
2. "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." You'll laugh, I'm sure, but the bride in this one, Tierra Treas, is a sister of a friend, so I watched it to see her. And the show's not bad. The musical numbers are actually pretty good, although "Fame" it isn't.
My choice for Best Night to Blow Off All Schoolwork and Sit in Front of the Tube is Thursday. Tune up NBC. They've got "Fame," "Cheers," "Taxi" and "Hill Street Blues," which shows every sign of being even better than last year. The season opener was great: Furillo calm, Joyes was cautious but beautiful, and Beker hit his first criminal of the new season.
My choice for Show that Should Be Put Out of Our Misery is a tie between "Happy Days" and "Lavenre and Shirley." The '50s are over, and so, frankly, are the laughs.
And my pick for biggest void of the season is the Monday night slot at 9 p.m., where for a brief time, I and other journalists found solace in a classroom other than our own. I miss you, "Lou Gray."
Reagan wants special session Open seating plan surprisingly good
Re ROBERT MACKAV
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan wants Congress to turn away from continuing resolutions, a legislative device used to temporarily limit the use like Don Quixote, he may be fighting windmills.
The president is threatening to call Congress into a special lame-duck session after the Nov. 2 elections to pass all of its appropriations bills for completing the need for another continuing resolution.
In a Sept. 16 letter to Senate Republican leader Howard Baker, Reagan said trying to run the federal government "without a proper budget—with a series of temporary continuing resolutions and the associated overall budgetary uncertainty" to both bad economics and bad management."
Congress has not passed any of the 13 appropriations bills needed for fiscal 2015, which
Reagan asked in his letter that the continuing resolution be for the "shortest possible time . . . to allow this Congress to resume and complete its work following the elections."
Obviously, few appropriations bills, if any, will be passed by then, and a continuing resolution will be needed.
But if Congress cannot complete its work by the November elections, what makes Reagan think Congress can do it following the elections?
Baker has said he would prefer a session to start Nov. 29, giving Congress about one month.
Forcing Congress to complete its work will probably play well in Peoria, but yield very little substance. Congress is notorious for its lethargic habits; one appropriation bill can take all moments.
Moreover, previous lame-duck sessions have resulted in very little being accomplished.
Also, Reagan is trying to eliminate what has become a regular, ingrained feature of modern government. Not since 1963 has Congress made such an effort in a year without responding to a continuing resolution.
Several federal departments have been funded by a continuing resolution this entire 1982 fiscal year, because Congress was unable to pass three appropriations bills.
No Labor-Health and Human Services appropriation bill has been passed for the past four years, simply because Congress cannot agree on the sensitive issues within it.
Reagan will need more than a one-month special session to wean Congress of the expeditionary force.
Conceeding the extent of the problem, congressional budget leaders are now thinking of changing the annual budget to a two-year process so that the entire year just to pass appropriations bills.
The first continuing resolution was passed in 1876. Then, they were in force only a matter of days. But now they are longer in duration, lasting several months.
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open seating Saturday at Memorial Stadium worked.
It can work again.
The experiment may not have been an unqualified success — several people sat where they should not have — but it nonetheless proved that open seating is not such a hideous idea after
This week, members of the Student Senate sports committee will be soliciting response from KU students about whether they favor a year-round open seating policy for home football
They have at least one vote in favor of partial open seating.
An open seating policy is still in the gestation period right now, because the Senate sports committee has not drafted any resolutions one way or the other on the issue. In fact, according to Ame Stucker, co-chairman of that committee, a resolution must be passed by one (resolution) from open seating at the games.
Earlier reports had indicated that the committee was planning to draft a resolution. But Stucker said the potential controversy of the open seating issue warranted that the committee find out what the student body favored before taking such action.
"We really wanted to wait until after this game to find out what the students want," Stucker said in reference to Saturday's loss to Tulsa. "A lot depends on how much feedback we have whether to draft a resolution in favor of the team or making or to leave things just the way they are."
"We are going to make a recommendation and then take what knowledge action follows from there."
But leaving the present ticket-buying system the way it is was not what Jim Lessig, athletic director, or Richard Konzem, assistant athletic director, would have done. They first broached the idea of oneneting.
cause he is to the new multicultural Konzem said that he and Lessig thought open seating was one way to boost student interest in KU athletics.
They want what every KU student wants — an easier alteration to the new environment one
They are right.
Open seating is a vibe suggestion. It is certainly not a new idea. It is used in several schools in the Big Eight, Kozum said. And Bowling Green University, where Lessig served as athletic director before coming to KU, had open seating.
Iowa State University uses a partial reserved-pairal open seating policy that Konem called "real successful." It is the kind of that should be used at the University of Kansas.
What Konezom is advocating is a system where the seats above the break, or row 43, on the east side are the highest.
First-come, first-served. The remaining seats would be sold as reserved, for the not wishing to arrive.
What's wrong with that? With the present system, living groups and even large groups of friends often cannot sit together because they are not all seniors or freshmen.
People who do not wish to participate in the rush-for-the-50-yard-line could purchase reserved seats and saunter in at their leisure. Who gets hurt by this?
Saturday afternoon, with the open seating rule, seats could still be found on the 85-variable line.
LISA GUTIERREZ
a half hour before game time. No one camped out overnight for the game, although the same might not have been true if KU had been facing KState.
But as Konzem rightly pointed out, in a stadium the size of Memorial, no seats are really bad seats. "And touchdowns aren't made at the 50." he said.
Besides, too often those with reserved seats do not sit in these seats. They sit with friends in other sections and push those reserved seat holders out of their rightful spots. With open seating, these persons would have no reason to be rude.
Another foreseen plus to open seating, should it be formally suggested, is a psychological one. "People like to be handed a ticket when they pay for it." Stucker said. "They don't like to pay for it and then be told, O.K., pick it up in two weeks."
Open seating would be administratively wise. Now, reserved tickets are often difficult to pass out, because some students have classes that run连续上课. You can pick up their tickets. With open seating, tickets could be handed out at enrollment. No fuss, less manpower.
Stucker, who is a KU athletics hostess, said one man approached her at halftime and asked where he might get a refund on his ticket.
As mentioned before, Saturday's experiment
on offered him an unqualified success.
Sturmer said he was excited.
The man told her that his party had been directed to what they thought were open seats, but were later pushed out of the seats by reserved ticket holders. The man had stood during the first half of the game and was very irate. Stucker said.
"Obviously, someone did not know which sections were reserved," said Stucker.
"At this point and knowing how things went Saturday, it's the best thing," said Konzem. "From our point of view, it was a great success for both parents and students."
If open seating were to be adopted, safeguards would have to be taken to prevent such misapplause.
There were, however, some reserved ticket holders who felt cheated out of their rightful seats when they arrived at the stadium Saturday. But the experiment was a one-shot deal. If open seats were sold at the beginning of season, these hard feelings would not have been.
Some people have protested that fewer students would buy tickets if the seats were open. But not all the seats in Memorial Stadium would be open, if a partial system were adopted. And the incentives and advantages to buy under outweigh the difficulties of the present system.
Besides, there would still be reserved seating with Konzen's plan — there row 43 for those seats.
Student seating is open for basketball games. The rush is always maddest to sit behind the goals, where the few choice seats are. In Memorial Stadium, where there are a few thousand more seats to choose from, the rush would not have to be so mad.
KU students would be wite to voice approval of a partial-open seating policy at home football game.
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