How To Succeed As A Student by Kevin B. Backnall Sections #7 and #8

When you consider the relative benefits and cost, it seems strange that so many more people choose to drive at speed rather than read at speed.

Few people naturally read as efficiently as they might, even those who read quickly. Although you were taught to read as a child, it is unlikely that you now read well. Once a child can read, few teachers feel that there is any more to do, other than perhaps a few spelling tests and the like, so you were probably left alone. Unless you have already undertaken a speed reading course, you might as well assume that although you know how to read, you do so at less than your maximum ability. The reading situation is not unlike learning to drive a motor car: the majority of people in a developed country learn to drive, but the majority of those in turn do not drive particularly well, and a surprising number drive badly.

Undertaking a speed reading course is so valuable that one wonders why it is not made obligatory in high schools. `Speed reading' is really a misnomer, as such courses teach you how to read properly, and better than almost anyone does naturally. This is a different thing from merely reading quickly as you can imagine. If you work through a speed reading course, you will not only read faster but will also probably retain more of what you do read. To some extent it is a trade off between speed and memory: you can choose both to read more quickly and understand/remember more, or you can really read a lot more quickly but remember about the same amount. If the university offers free courses, or you find a computer program that you can do, then you are advised to seize the opportunity. It should increase both your learning and reading efficiency. It is not a good idea for a poor student to pay out large sums of money for commercial courses, as they are often no better than free ones and some of them can be very expensive indeed.

Most speed reading programs start with a test to see how fast you read at present. This acts as a base mark for your progress. When you start each session, there is usually a warm-up exercise to get you ready, then you are put through a series of exercises to develop your reading techniques. They will probably include things like more rapid eye movement and better peripheral vision, as well as attention to speed. You will often have to do a little quiz, to ensure that you are actually reading and taking in what you see, not just running your eye over the material. A program will have dozens, perhaps more than a hundred different texts to use as exercises, and some allow you to put more in. You are hardly likely to do this, as it means typing stuff in to use later. This is not only a tedious process, but the results can mislead, because it does give you a speed edge when you re-read it later.

Computers are an ideal way of putting you through a speed reading course. It is easy to set a speed for you, then increase it to match your personal needs, as your reading improves and you need extending more. You might get timed reading passages, where you hit a button when you have finished. You might have paced reading, where the screen flicks over to the next page at a predetermined rate. This speed may increase automatically or in some packages you may be able to adjust it for yourself. The program might also be able to show you graphs of your progress.

It is common to double one's reading speed after going conscientiously through such a course, but individuals vary a lot.

There is not one universal way of approaching the problem of learning to read better, but a few useful and general points work for many people. When you first pick up an academic book, or any book from which you wish to learn, you should first check the edition and publication date, to see how recent it is. Then you should examine the contents carefully, in order to get an idea of the coverage, and some of the more specialised words and subjects that you may encounter later. Check the preface or introduction, to try to ascertain the level and the target market of the book.

Before reading a chapter through, flip through quickly, reading the headings and subheadings. In this way you get an idea of what is to come and it helps to prepare the mind for remembering when you return to the start and begin to read properly.

Try to read in phrases, not word by word. The sense is often better discovered that way, and it is a quicker way of reading.

Try to read different material at different speeds, adjusting your speed to the material and your own needs. A lightweight escapist novel of the kind often read on 'planes can be read quickly; a newspaper might be skimmed through reading the headlines, but then you might slow your speed to read something of interest and slow down even more for the, sadly rather rare, item of immense interest. A good novel should be read more slowly than light fiction, as in this way, the writing style can better be appreciated and insight gained into the human condition. A quality news magazine should be read more slowly than a local daily newspaper. A textbook will probably be read even more slowly again. You will observe that efficient reading also involves tackling different material in different ways, i.e., choosing the speed and particular technique (such as the SQ3R above) that is most suitable for your purpose.

COMPUTERS AND YOU:

The most important two things to know about computers are:

1. They are fun and nothing to be afraid of;

2. You do not have to spend thousands of dollars to get one that will be suitable for your needs.

Computers are fun, great fun. There are so many things that one can do, including a heap of games of a variety of kinds, that one could easily spend most of the day just playing about with them. If you have not handled one before - do not worry! They really are nothing to be afraid of. For some reason unknown to people, a lot of people suffer from a feeling of `If I press the F10 key, will the world explode?'. It won't; trust me. You are not too old to start, and computers are not restricted to those who were introduced to them at school. If you can work a TV set, there is no reason why you should not work a computer. If you can programme your TV video machine to record several programmes on different channels at different times, which for some reason defeats a surprising proportion of the population, then a computer might even seem easy.

There are basically two sorts of things you can do with a computer. You can either write your own programs (programming) or run those that someone else already compiled. If you are determined to be a creative user of computers, writing your own programs, designing systems and the like, then you are likely to end up in one of the professions where work is easier to find and often well paid. Information technology with financial/business acumen is particularly in demand. Most computer users, however, do not fall into this group.

The main users of computers do not themselves write programs but stick to running those written by other people, which are available off the shelf. If you join a computer subject and the handout or the early lectures keep going on about bytes, central processing units (CPU's), computer languages (like Cobol, Basic, or C), and rather strange habits like peeking and poking, then it is probably a serious subject about programming rather than about merely using computers. Using programs written by other people is where the fun lies for most of us and this is not difficult to do. What is difficult is using the program to its full capacity - many of them are so powerful (translate this to `will do so much for you') that it can take months, perhaps years before one could get to the end of their capabilities. Fortunately, unless you are teaching someone how to use the program, you are unlikely ever to wish to learn each and every thing that a powerful program will do for you. Once you can use it well enough for your purposes, you can stop learning. In fact you should stop learning: there is far more of interest to discover in this great and wonderful, if sometimes incredibly mysterious, world than how to move diagrams around in columns in a word processor, unless of course you have that particular need.

So you now realise that a computer will be handy and might even have started to believe that you need a computer. If you do not already have a computer, you should buy a cheap one if finances permit. How much will you have to spend? You should not have to lay out more than $300 in 1994 for a good second hand if rather slow or old fashioned IBM PC clone but probably a bit more for a Mac. These are the only two major varieties of personal computers worth bothering with: IBM PCs (a few of which are made by IBM but most by others, known as clones and often made in Asia) and Mackintoshes (Macs). IBM clones are the cheapest of all, but Macs are good and are easier to use. Genuine IBM machines are good but never as good value as most of the clones. At present, Macs still tend to be expensive and therefore even less good value in my opinion. However, the people at Apple (the firm that makes Macs), are aware of this and keep reducing the price of Macs to try to compete. For their part, the folks at IBM know that the appeal of Macs is their ease of use, and Windows, which is the name of a program, now makes the IBM-type machine almost as easy to use as Macs. The term `PC' usually refers to an IBM or IBM clone machines, rather than to a Mac. I personally use an IBM compatible and much of my practical advice below tends to refer to those machines. However, both IBM compatibles and Macs are powerful machines, and either will serve your purposes well.

Although Windows has made the PC easier to use, by pointing and clicking rather than having to issue commands, almost all Windows programs run slower than their DOS equivalent, Windows is likely to crash more often than DOS (and if you have not saved regularly you will lose your work) and Windows needs both a more modern faster computer and one with more memory than DOS does, which means spending more money. Newcomers to computing often like Windows for its ease of use, but those more used to computing often prefer DOS. The future definitely appears to be Windows but there are many out there who have tried both and returned to DOS programs.

A second hand computer (that works!) is a cheap way in and a good way of starting if you have little money and are prepared to take a small risk. Technical progress is so rapid in computing that many good, but by contemporary standards slow, computers are available second hand, as people upgrade to something fancier and faster. The shops will not normally accept them in part exchange as they are essentially valueless to them. An old second hand IBM clone is usually the best value. As a bonus, second hand computers almost always come with lots of software (programs) which makes them particularly attractive. If buying second hand, try to take someone a bit knowledgeable with you and insist that the machine be demonstrated in front of you and several different programs run that you can watch and if you have some competency at all, try out for yourself. Naturally, second hand computers do not usually come with any guarantee, so there is some risk involved. Generally speaking, however, a computer either works properly or not at all. It is not really easy to `bog them up' like a secondhand car and pretend that they are much better than they really are. As long as it works, which means that it can word process, use a spreadsheet and data base, and particularly can send material to a printer for printing, then it is likely to be fine. Naturally, an old computer will eventually die, but they seem to keep chugging along for years; I still have a perfectly satisfactory PC that is ten years old, and its only problem is that it now seems terribly slow by contemporary standards. At the time of writing (1994) you should be able to pick up such a machine for less than $300 and maybe under $200, including hard disc, colour monitor and lots of software. As a rule of thumb that currently applies, an ancient but serviceable second hand machine might cost around 10 to 20 per cent of the price of the latest most powerful models available. This price relationship has not varied much of late, but how long it will last is not known. Buy a recent computer magazine - making sure it is published in your country first - and check the adverts for the latest prices. Please do not blame me if you are unlucky enough to buy a second hand machine that dies quickly. If you buy second hand you are accepting that risk.

When buying a second hand computer, check the newspaper advertisements on a Saturday morning. If you are sensible, you will already have bought one of the monthly computer magazines and read the advertisements and gained an idea of the price of computers and what is offered. Generally, you will find that in the newspaper, many people have completely unrealistic expectations about what they can get for a used computer. Many advertisements seem to be about twice a price that would seem reasonable. Sadly, if someone paid $2,000 for a computer a year ago, they might think they can get perhaps $1,500 now. They will not. Technology advances so rapidly that within a year the value might have fallen to perhaps one third. If you check the prices of new machines with a guarantee in a computer magazine, you will often find they are cheaper than people are asking for second hand machines of lower capabilities and without a guarantee! Of course, they do not really get what they ask, unless from some careless and foolish person who has not done his/her homework. If you buy a good second hand computer, it will tend to lose less value, rather in the way a new car loses a lot of value as soon as one drives it out of the show room, but a second hand one is worth the same as one drives it off.

If you wish to buy new, it is often possible to get a good 386 machines (see below for meaning) for about $1,200 - $1,400 in 1994, or a decent 486 with printer and various programs like Windows 3.1 bundled in for around $2000. Few people who can afford it would now buy a 386, because of the slower speed involved. New machines come with guarantees of course. You should be able to expect a lot of after-sales service and advice but you cannot be certain of this. A few shops or firms might be very helpful, but sadly many of them do not seem really interested once you have bought and carted the stuff away. Some are simply not good enough to sort out all your problems anyway.

Computers use either 5�" or 3�" floppy discs that go into a slot. The smaller discs actually contain much more space and are both more modern and a better bet if you have to choose. There is still plenty of life in 5�-only machines, but there will be less software available in the future. Some machines come with both sizes on them which is good. The discs are used for keeping files on and it is possible to run small programs from them. Any decent machine also has a hard disc that can hold many programs and heaps of files. A hard disc comes in sizes such as 20 megabytes or more, including 40, 60, 120, 200 megabytes or even bigger. The bigger the better, but 10 megs is archaic, 20 megs definitely a bit small, but 40 megs is enough for most normal purposes unless you run huge games, which tend to eat into the memory. A megabyte is of course a measure of size.

If you are buying a new machine that is IBM compatible, you should get one with at least 4 megs of RAM (random access memory) and 8 megs are better. From your point of view, they make everything run much faster and allow the Windows program to operate. Less than 4 megs is too out of date and old fashioned and only acceptable if it is a cheap second hand machine.

The speed a computer runs at matters a bit: the faster the better. A basic XT PC, such as the first IBM machines, is slow and archaic but will do much of what you will want, but it will not run Windows; it will be good enough to start with. The `286' machines run faster, but are still ancient, still do not run Windows, but are also fine to begin on. The `386' machines are better and are only just beginning to look old fashioned; the `486' ones are fast; but the wonderfully modern and speedy `Pentium' chip machines are currently state of the art. In five years time they will presumably also look old hat. Modern (386, 486) machines run at 16 megahertz (MHZ), 25, 32 and even 64 MHZ. A 16 MHZ is probably fast enough for almost anybody.

To sum up: if you are poor, buy a decent second hand machine, maybe an ancient IBM clone with a 20k meg or more hard drive. If you are less poor, buy a newer second hand machine and get at least a 386 running at 16 MHZ or faster, with at least an 80 meg hard drive. If you are reasonable well off, you can go for the same or better, with lots of bells and whistles (computer jargon for fancy gadgets and bits and pieces that look and sound fine but are not really all that much use to most of us) and a guarantee.

What should you not be looking for? Specific word processing machines, i.e., they do nothing else but word processing, are relatively cheap even when new. In my view you are better advised to go for a personal computer proper. They are capable of doing so much more and, in addition, when you have to apply for a job, it helps if you are computer literate and can use one or more of the most common programs. It is increasingly expected that anyone hired will know about computers, even if the person hiring knows little or nothing themselves. Perhaps such a person specially hires those with computer skills, in order to remedy their own deficiency. However, if you already have a simple word processor and are competent on it, you may decide to stick with it, and you will not have to spend any more money.

So-called `personal information managers' (PIM), `information managers' or `organisers', are executive toys and are little more than an electric personal organiser and should be avoided. A personal organiser is a sort of big diary, which many people find very useful. It is easier to use in the old-fashioned paper format rather than as an electronic gizmo. In any case there are programs for the PC that will allow you to emulate a PIM is you so wish. `Fun but pretty useless' is a fair description in my view. Equally, almost anything labelled `palmtop' (as in palm of the hand) or `hand-held' is likely to be more fun than practical use.

Note book computers that can be carried around easily and used at home and at the university are excellent but much more expensive than the equivalent desk top model. Portables fall into three broad groups, a) hand held, which are tiny and not yet of much use for most people; b) notebooks, which are the most useful size; and c) laptops also known as `luggables', which are older and heavier, as the nickname indicates. With current technology, notebooks are the most desirable. The really expensive ones have colour screens, but these are not really necessary, just pretty and fun. The three major problems with notebooks are a) the higher cost; b) the fact that they are more easily stolen; and c) they tend to be more susceptible to damage as they are carried around and probably get bumped a lot more than desk tops, and the degree of miniaturization involved can make some components more fragile. This makes buying second hand notebooks a bit riskier perhaps. Beware of the occasional manufacturer, including at least one with an international reputation, who labels a hand-held gizmo `Notebook' as a model name, rather than following the generally accepted use of the word `notebook' as a proper powerful portable personal computer. If the machine involved does not have a full sized screen, but a broad and short one, then it is not at the moment what we mean by a notebook computer. The distinction may blur with the rapid development of technology, as well as with the changing usage of English.

Multi-media is the latest thing. This means linking your PC to a TV set and doing lots of clever things. A multi-media machine includes a CD ROM drive - a CD holds a great deal more than any floppy, up to 44 times as much. `ROM' means "read-only-memory". i.e., you cannot write on it or alter it, just use what comes on it for whatever purpose it is designed for. A CD ROM needs a special drive which can be bought and fitted to an existing machine if you have a relatively up-to-date one and are prepared to spend the money. Really cheap ones run too slowly to show films etc. and are really only suitable for using text-specific CDs. Frankly, for your purposes, multi-media is not really worth it if you are an ordinary university student and a computer beginner. Later you could consider moving into multi-media if you really want to or need it. Putting huge amounts of material on a CD, e.g., an entire encyclopedia, sounds impressive and actually is. With a computerised encyclopedia, searching for what you want is easier and faster than using hard copy. Hard copy is simply a jargon word for printed material on paper. Searching electronically is easier than locating the correct (heavy) volume and leafing through it for the information you need. It is also much faster to leap to cross references using a computer than old fashioned printed books.

Once you have a computer, you should check the subjects offered by the University and go to any that might be useful to you. The Information Technology Service (ITS) offers regular free courses such as `An introduction to Personal Computers' or `Word Perfect 5.1'. These courses are advertised in the ITS Newsletter and in Griffith University's information sheet NOTA. While at university, you should take advantage of all such learning opportunities that interest you or might be useful later.

Everything sitting in your computer falls into three groups: the running system, the programs and the files. Unless you are a programmer, or very skilful and a little bit brave, you can forget entirely about the running system and concentrate on programs and files. Only if something goes wrong need you even think about the running system. This is the bit that really makes the whole computer work and dictates how it will do so. Programs are packages that do things, e.g., allow you to write a letter or essay, or find all the books you read in January 1994. Files are the things you produce, e.g., the letter, essay or book list itself. These can be printed out if you need hard copy.

COMPUTER PROGRAMS

When you have a computer (the hardware) you will need some programs to run on it (the software). The main types of programs are word processing, data bases, spreadsheets, graphics/presentations, desk top publishing, games and utilities. There are also many specific packages for lots of specialised needs like accounting, statistics or running a medical practice.

What programs do you need? Most personal computers are used by most of the people most of the time for word processing. You will find that a spell-checker is very useful and all good word processing packages already include one. Some even include grammar checkers, but these are often too simple to be of much use at university level, unless your English is particularly poor. Grammar checkers tend to object to complicated sentences and creative writing. You must have a word processing package as a minimum: Word Perfect and Word are the two most popular of the powerful programs that run under DOS (rather than in Windows) but even a simple one will do almost everything you are likely to want at first.

Note that almost all programs have a number and sometimes a reference at the end of the name, e.g., WordPerfect 6.0 for DOS. The number refers to the model or release time of the program. The higher the number the better, as it is more modern and will do more as well as perhaps containing fewer bugs. A `bug' is something in the program that makes it do something it should not do and maybe sometimes even hang up (freezing the machine). If it says `for DOS' it operates under the usual PC running system, but modern programs will usually run under Windows although not in a small window with all its advantages. If it says `for Windows' it will not run under DOS, but needs Windows as its operating system.

You might also find useful a simple Computer Assisted Design (CAD) program, or drawing/graphics package. An example is the expensive AutoCAD, or Corel Draw or the much cheaper shareware package Draft Choice. Such programs are used to draw diagrams that can then be imported into your essays and assignments. A spreadsheet could also be used, although less easily, for this purpose. You might note that for many university purposes it is sufficient, and easier, for you to leave a space on the page and draw the diagram in neatly by hand, using a ruler and black or coloured inks. If you are an ordinary student, not intending to study computing, this is really all you need. In short, you can usually get by without a CAD program.

Data bases are not well named, it suggests they are used for keeping figures. They can be so used, but generally are not. Most data bases are used to keep information, such as book authors and titles, or names and addresses for mailing lists, rather than figures. A good example of a data base is a library catalogue contained in a nest of drawers containing small cards. The whole thing is a data base, each card is a `record' and each element on the card is a `field'. Unless taking a course on how to use a computer, you may not have much need for a data base for some time, if at all. Well-known ones include Dbase, FoxPro, Paradox and Q&A.

Spreadsheets look like an old bank ledger and are used for doing a variety of complicated sums and other mathematical tasks, such as working out mortgage repayments at varying rates of interest. They are very good at this sort of thing, and it is easy to change a small part (e.g., an assumption about the rate of interest) and see what happens to the whole thing as a result. They are also quite good at graphing data and producing reasonable diagrams from figures. Again, you may not have much need for spreadsheets for some time. They can be used for storing and manipulating data, but are never as versatile at such tasks as a dedicated data base. Well-known good ones include Lotus 1-2-3, Excel, Quattro Pro, As-Easy-As and Supercalc.

Desk top publishing is a way of producing a simple newspaper or magazine, including text and pictures, but you should have no need for doing this at university. It is valuable if you are in a media course and great fun if you are producing a newsletter for some social club or political organisation for example. Other than that, there is little point in bothering with desk top publishing.

Various other special programs are around, for example statistical packages and accounting programs, but only specialists and researchers are likely to need access to these. If you go on into research, then you will find your own needs and fill them when appropriate.

There are lots of games for computers, most of which fall into categories such as simulation, adventure, strategic and arcade. Others games covered include chess, bridge, and mahjongg. I cannot tell what sort, if any, you will like, but I would strongly warn you that it is easy to waste, sorry spend, a lot of time playing computer games. They are often on the expensive side too.

Games seem to be exchanged a lot, by many people, often illegally. You should be careful when taking any disc from anyone else, or even accepting one of their programs on a disc of your own. Not only is it usually illegal, but you will run a high risk from viruses.

Computer viruses are a major problem, especially in high schools and universities. A virus infects a program and causes the computer to do things you do not want. It might merely flash up a silly message, or do something more serious like causing individual letters to drop out of words and float down the screen, or even completely destroy data and files. Of the over one thousand viruses currently existing, you are extremely unlikely to encounter more than a few, but even one is too many and it can be anything from a minor irritant to a total disaster.

Viruses are transferred from one machine to another via floppy discs. The golden rule is to obtain an up-to-date virus checking program and always run it on any disc that has been used elsewhere or you receive for the first time. This includes both discs belonging to others and any disc of yours that has been in another machine. Do this every time, especially if moving a disc from a university computer to your home computer. Several times I have had to clean the `Stoned' virus off my home computer after forgetting to check a disc that I had used at work. Even printing from a disc can infect it, so be warned. Sometimes, though rarely, brand new discs from stores have been found to have a virus on them. It is believed that this may be caused by the packs being opened and used, then rewrapped in plastic and sold as new. It is particularly important not to boot up from any disc that was last used in an other machine, as booting from an infected disc is the easiest way to ensure that if you a virus it will travel. You would be surprised how easy it is to leave a floppy disc in a drive when turning off your machine; when you turn it on the next time, the computer first tries to boot from any floppy disc it can find. It is worth developing the habit of checking to ensure that there is no floppy in a drive before you switch on the computer.

The University will give you a recent virus detection program free if you take a disc along. Telephone extension 5555 (the Help Desk) to take advantage of this offer. If you forget to check a disk and are unlucky enough to get a virus infection in your computer, you should immediately note down carefully what happens and write down what can remember about what you were doing when disaster struck. Then call the University help desk to get advice.

Utilities are programs that improve the working of the computer and make various jobs easier for you. There are many around. Probably Norton Utilities and PCTools are the best known collections. If you ever have a serious problem you will probably need one or the other. I personally have found a hard disc manager, which allows all kinds of things like copying files, moving directories around and renaming things essential. I have found a relatively cheap shareware program called `Director' is the most useful of these for the IBM PC, especially for jobs like copying all the files that were altered during that day's work to floppy disc as a back up. Coupled with a file editor like Boxer or QEdit, one can work wonders. You might find a hard disc manager useful immediately, but a file editor can safely be left until you are more experienced.

There are a few excellent integrated packages which include word processing, a spreadsheet, and a data base all in one. These serve the purposes of almost all ordinary users very well indeed. Microsoft Works is good and well known and there are versions for Macs and PCs. ClarisWorks for the Mac also has a good reputation. Others for PCs include 8-in-1, Wordperfect Office, Borland Office and Lotus Works. Integrated packages are not only cheaper than buying all the individual packages, but they are designed so that it is easy to move items from one to another. You can design a table in a spreadsheet and import it easily into your word processor which can be very useful for semester essays or special projects. They may also have a paint program included, which allows you to draw pictures, including simple diagrams. Windows itself includes a paint program capable of producing diagrams that can be imported into the simple word processing package that also comes with it. The only minor disadvantage of integrated programs is that not all elements of the package are up to the same high standard as the best bit, and there are individual packages around that are better than each individual part of an integrated package. This is not a matter that should concern you if you are a beginner.

On balance, if you are starting from the beginning and buying a new computer, and feel the need for more than word processing, then a good integrated package is easily the best bet. It will do everything you need and a great deal more. Later you can move up to a more powerful specialist program if you feel this would be useful. If you buy a second hand machine, it probably will already have various programs on it, and if you buy a new one, it often comes with programs bundled in. It is easier and cheaper to use whatever you get, rather than buy extra programs for yourself.

There are three broad sources of computer programs: commercial, shareware and public domain. Commercial packages are almost always the most expensive and many of the best programs are found there. Shareware is a concept that allows you to try before you buy, and for little more than the price of a disc you can get many programs to test out. If one suits your purposes and you continue to use it, you are morally obliged to register and pay for the program. As an incentive, you often get a more up-to-date and improved version that works better or does more. Other incentives include some shareware programs working for a limited time then stopping, or not giving you the ability to save your work, which is pretty potent pressure. Some shareware programs are excellent and better than many commercial ones but at a lower price. Public domain programs are free, but with some few exceptions are often not as good as the first two types. If you get a Mac, you might be less likely to need and use shareware and public domain software, for two reasons. First, there is simply a lot more around for the PC than the Mac. Second, the Mac's running system is superior to MS-DOS for the PC (even DOS 6.1) and leaves less holes, i.e., the absence of useful things, than DOS, so there is a little less need to write programs to improve the Mac's running system.

While public domain and shareware programs abound and are great fun to try out and play with, most students only need a good integrated package. Beware of allowing your time to pour away playing with programs that you do not need. Many computer magazines give away a free disc of programs each month and while great fun, they can take up too much of your time if you let them. This also holds true for word processing packages. It is easy to keep trying one after the other, looking for that perfect program. There isn't one, just some that suit your needs and work style a bit better, or a bit worse, than others. It is easy to overlook the fact that the quality of your work is hardly likely to improve merely because you are writing it in WordPerfect, rather than a simpler and cheaper package.

You should obtain a screen-saver program if one was not supplied with the machine. Such programs blank off the screen after a predetermined period, which you can usually set for yourself. Two minutes is a reasonable time for many people. If you leave the computer on but unattended, e.g., if you take a break or stop to find a particular page in a textbook, the monitor screen switches off. This save the monitor and extends its life; in particular it stops the words on the screen imprinting themselves and eventually making the screen fuzzy and harder to read.

COMPUTER FILES

A file is something that you write yourself, perhaps an essay, or notes about politics in Japan. You should, or rather must, always keep at least two back-ups on floppy disks of all the files you write so that including the original on the hard disc you have three copies in all. Time spent backing up is never time wasted. If possible, keep one back-up at a different address. Otherwise one day you will regret it when you accidentally delete a file and lose everything. Other possible calamities include a disk self-destructing and becoming unreadable, or the computer being stolen, or destroyed in a fire. Everyone who uses a computer has a horror story of not bothering to back up and then losing a file that may have days or even weeks of work in it. Please try not to learn this lesson the hard way or you will regret it bitterly. Equally, whenever you are using your word processor, remember to save regularly, at least every 15 minutes, or you might lose the lot if the electricity goes off for a second, or your hard disc hangs up (which they tend to do now and then). If you work all morning then lose all your work, you will remember to save in the future. Experience is a good teacher but at the price charged, it had better be. Prevention is definitely better than any cure. Some of the better packages allow you to set automatic saves every 10 minutes or whatever you choose - if yours lets you do this, it is sensible to do so.

If you keep a lot of your material on computer rather than on note cards and the like, you will find that it is easy to access. You can do global searches for terms that are in files that you need to use in order to study or to prepare an assignment. It is far quicker to find everything you have on `World War Two' using a computer than by searching through a physical filing system and reading over the pieces of paper. Do not however forget to search on the computer for other variations of your terms, such as `WW2', `WWII' and `Second World War' or you might miss a valuable document. Other words such as `Germany', `Japan', `allies' or `USA' might also be worth a search, depending on your needs as well as what is in your files.

When giving your new file a name, try to choose one that will mean something to you later. If you call a file `WW2-1', it tells you that it is your first file about the Second World War, and `Jim1.let' will be your first letter sent to Jim. If you call a file something obscure like `memo' it could be about anything and to anybody; `bonj' merely looks mysterious and could refer to anything at all. You need to choose file names so that in six months time you should be able to read the name and at least have an idea about the contents and not have to keep loading it up to check what it was about. Note the use of numbers in the file name can help to differentiate files on the same topic but of different dates/contents. The last three letters after the dot (the suffix) can help a bit to suggest the type of file it is. There are certain extensions that should be avoided or used purposefully when choosing a file name. This is because they are widely accepted as meaning something specific or else they tell the computer to do something. Some examples are:

- `.bak' is a back-up file (i.e., a copy)

- `.let' may mean it is a letter

- `.doc' means it is a document

- `.wk1', `wk3' or `.wks' means it is a spreadsheet file

- `.xl anything' is probably a spreadsheet file

- `.db3', `.dbf', `.dbt' or `db4' is probably a data base file

- `.mem' can be used for a memo

- `.lec' you could use for lecture notes.

- `.ndx' is probably an index file and should not be chosen

- `.bat' always refers to a batch file (which you will probably learn about later) and should not be used

- `.exe' tells the computer this is a program it can run and should not be used

- `.com' tells the computer this is a program it can run and should not be used

If you are unlucky enough to erase an important file or disc, do not panic! The important thing is not to try to recover it yourself unless you are a bit of an expert. It is easy to recover a deleted file and you do not need to be a computer propeller head (jargon for expert) to do it. You just need the right program and a bit of confidence and/or experience. There are programs around that will undelete a deleted file for you, notably Norton Utilities, PCtools or the Undelete program supplied in DOS 6.0. It is important that as soon as you realise the mistake, you do not try to use the disc. You must not try to write anything else or save anything to the disc. If you leave the disc completely alone there is a good chance that five minutes work will retrieve your missing file. If you cannot do this, then take the disc to someone who knows how to undelete. If the deleted file is on your hard disc, you can explain the problem to the expert and see if they will come to you. If not, you have to get the computer to them. If you have written something in the meantime, before you realised you had deleted the file, you should save the new file onto to a different floppy disc. If you have inadvertently saved something after mistakenly deleting something, it may overwrite the deleted file and you could lose a bit of it, or even all of it. It is always worth trying to undelete and seeing what you get anyway, as you may be able to salvage most of it.

If you are working on a file and something strange happens, e.g., funny faces suddenly appear, or the cursor moves without you doing anything, it is to be hoped you saved your work recently. Do not panic, but try to save the file under a new name - most programs have a `Save as..' command, that allows you to choose a new name. Once you save it as the new name, you continue in the new-name file, not the original one. If something has happened, at least you have saved an original file called, say, `Develop' as a new file `Develop1'. You will then have two different files to retrieve and can select the better one. Having saved, exit the program if possible, then go back in. This often fixes the problem. If it does not solve it, exit again, switch off the machine, wait at least 30 seconds, switch on again, and retry. If your original problem was the machine hanging up, you will have to switch off, wait half a minute, then turn on again. Computers and printers sometimes seem to develop a sort of mental breakdown that can often be cured by turning off, waiting, and switching on. It is always worth trying before panicking and calling in the experts.

COMPUTER ODDMENTS

One of the things you must do quite early on in the piece is to make a boot up disc, using a floppy disc. If and when your hard disc hangs up or your system crashes, you can switch off, put the boot up floppy disc in the drive, and switch on. That will get your machine up and running and you can then start to investigate the problem and put it right. The boot up disc can often keep you working in an emergency and if you need to call in an expert, having the disc will make it much easier. It is absolutely essential that you make a boot up disc.

It is not hard to make a boot up disc. The usual way with a PC is to put a formatted blank disc in the drive, go to your DOS directory, type `sys' (for `system') and hit the enter key. A copy of the system is transferred to the floppy. You then have to copy the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files to the floppy yourself and you have finished the job. If you are not sure how to do this, check your DOS handbook, or any simple introduction to DOS, to find out how. If you have a Mac, copying the system is even easier.

Never turn a computer off then straight on again, as you can damage the machine. It could leave you without a computer until the shop can get around to looking at your machine, which might take a week or more. If you have an essay in the machine and it is due in, you have not printed it up, and have foolishly forgotten to back it up to floppy disc, you will be in severe trouble.

You must take care over the way you physically handle your floppy discs. If you are using the physically larger 5� size, they are very floppy and liable to be damaged more easily. Never put your fingers on the actual disc itself, but always pick it up by the cardboard cover. Be careful not to spill anything like coffee or water over the disc as this will normally either damage or destroy it. Bang goes all your data and files, unless you have been scrupulous about keeping back-ups, which I assume by now you have. Spilling a cup of coffee or tea over your keyboard is another good way of causing damage to your equipment.

You should never leave floppy discs within a couple of feet of a telephone. When a telephone rings it can set up a temporary magnetic field that can corrupt a floppy disc and damage your files. Computers themselves are well protected inside a metal box; normally the hard disc, and floppy discs you put in a drive, are not susceptible to damage by ringing telephones.

If you have an old machine, it often takes a long time to boot up and be ready for use. If you switch it on before you need it, perhaps as you pass on the way to do something else, it can save a lot of frustration and time wasting later.

Be warned that for many people computers are a time sink. You take your time and pour it away. Before you know it, several hours may have passed while you happily worked or played on the computer. It is not a bad idea to set an alarm clock if you have appointments or things to do later, just in case you become so engrossed that you lose track of time.

Once you have a computer, you will eventually need a printer. If you can print up at university or on a friend's machine, then you might manage without for some time. Second hand printers are not as good value as second hand PCs, as there are many moving parts on a printer and these wear out. If you are in a study group, perhaps sharing the cost of a new printer would be worthwhile. Printers fall into three groups, dot matrix, ink-jet and lasers. Dot matrix printers are the cheapest and perfectly satisfactory for most of your purposes, and 9-pin would be fine, although 24-pin ones produce a page that looks a little better. Ink-jets printers produce a nicer cleaner printed output but are expensive to run, and laser printers are the most expensive to buy, but produce the best appearance of output. A business firm needs one of these, but you do not. A decent new hard working bottom of the range dot matrix printer might start at a little over $250 in 1994 and certainly there should be a few under $300.

One thing you must never do, is to plug a printer to or from a computer when the computer is switched on. It is safer to turn both off before plugging and unplugging. If you try to plug a printer into a computer that is on, there is a good chance that you will damage or destroy the printer port on the computer, which means getting it repaired and paying out good money needlessly. In the meantime, you will be without your computer while you wait for the person to get around to repairing it.

You may find it useful to go over your notes and put the main points on computer in order to print them out which allows you to read them quickly and easily. Once you have printed them out, you can put them in your binder in the appropriate section, for later study and revision. You will find that this is much easier to do from printed documents rather than from hand written ones.

KEEPING CLIPPINGS:

It is useful for all student to take a good newspaper (such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, or The Age) and/or good general magazine (like The Economist, The Bulletin and The Far Eastern Economic Review) to read articles of interest (such as about the budget, China, or Australian defence) that might be useful to you. In other Faculties, you would naturally follow your interests, e.g., if you are in Science, you might take The New Scientist or Scientific American. You can clip anything of interest and keep it for possible future use. Keeping clippings is becoming a little old fashioned as a way of storing information. Computer searches are so quick and easy to use. They also allow you to use someone else's data base, and so can provide access to more comprehensive data than your personal collection of notes could ever hope to be. Unfortunately, accessing electronic data bases costs money, which you probably do not have in abundance. Clippings are free, and as the economists say, the opportunity cost of doing this is zero, as you have already paid for the newspaper etc. that is the source of them. When you cut out an item, you should write the source, including the date and page number, on it

You can keep these clippings in a large envelope at first. As they accumulate, you will find you need more large envelopes or manilla folders as you will find a need to break them down more finely and develop a filing system. The subject outlines that you are given might be a useful way to start developing a filing system for your clippings, but one that works for you is all you need. After a time you will probably choose to adjust the filing system to meet your own needs as they become clear. It is better to avoid the habit of dumping them all unfiled into a large box, as they will remain inaccessible and you might as well not bother to keep clippings if you do not use them at all. Some few people have a psychological block against clipping magazines as it spoils them, and prefer to keep the entire issue. If you know what you are likely to need in future, there is little sense in keeping the whole magazine as they soon start to take up too much room, and most magazines that you would buy are easily accessible in libraries if you must search back. If you are not certain what you might want, then it is reasonable to keep the entire magazines for a time.

It might be possible to sell a set of clippings to a new generation of students when you are ready to leave university, but it is not likely that this will ever become a Get Rich Quick Scheme.

SOME GENERAL KNOWLEDGE YOU MIGHT FIND USEFUL:

When you come across a phrase or school of thought with which you are unfamiliar, you should not ignore it but find out what it means. A good place to start is Alan Bullock and Oliver Stallybrass, eds., The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, 2nd edit, which lists alphabetically a whole range of views and ideas, broadly of this century, and generally explains them both succinctly and well. It is always worth looking up individual words or phrases that might baffle you, such as `semiotics', `post-industrial society' or `the theory of games'.

You should equip yourself with a good general dictionary anyway, and check up on any word you read that either you have not met before, or you have seen but do not really know what it means. Not everyone around you knows what `hegemony', `synergy' or `pedagogical' mean for instance, but as a university student you need to be aware of the meaning of such words. English is a rather strange language, in that spelling does not always reflect pronunciation, so you might also need to look up how to pronounce a new word that you have read. The words `plough', `cough' and `through' look similar in the spelling of their endings, but they have very different sounds. Where the stress should be placed in words of more than one syllable is also often not obvious. There are several good dictionaries around, but I find the Modern Oxford Dictionary and the Macquarie particularly useful. If you are interested in the origin of words, the two volume Shorter Oxford Dictionary is fascinating.

A good thesaurus is very useful, allowing you to find alternative words and avoid constant repetition of a few. A thesaurus allows you to expand your vocabulary in an easy way, but please do not search for really strange or unusual words to replace useful, simple ones in order to complicate your sentences. Roget's Thesaurus is the best known of several. You have to look up your word in the back, then go to the numbered item indicated, (not page), noting that nouns, adjectives etc. are separately specified. You will find many alternatives to your word. A published thesaurus normally offers a much wider choice than a computer-based thesaurus.

On the more formal side of your study programme, the most up-to-date views and theories are to be found in the journals, not in the books, including text books, which by their nature are always a bit behind the times.

While you are at university, you can learn a lot more than the formal side of your education. There is a sort of `pop' knowledge that runs alongside the more serious study you will be doing, and if you are unaware of elements of this, you can feel a bit inferior or at the worst look a little foolish. This pop culture changes as new names-associated-with-views emerge, and a few older ones fall into disuse. It is an area that is often despised by serious academics as being trivial but to its credit it is an area of great fun and entertainment.

Some of the well-known names/views in this informal area are:

Edward de Bono, who is associated with the phrase `lateral thinking'. He recommends tackling any existing problem in a fresh way and trying to find a completely new approach rather than tinkering with, modifying or polishing it a bit, in the more usual way in. It is probably regarded as a good thing by the majority of those who bother to think about the issue at all.

Marshal McLuhan who is associated with the idea that modern communications are a force in their own right and have an impact just by being there and working so quickly around the world. `The medium is the message' was an early slogan that summarised his views. He had a good point, although some felt that he tended to belabour it a bit. If you watch a news item on TV and listen to it the radio, you might notice a very different slant that makes it sound like a different incident. TV news broadcasts tend to avoid items if the studio cannot show a picture of them, which act as a filter and restricts what you are told. You might come across parodies of McLuhan's famous slogan sometimes, often quite witty.

John Kenneth Galbraith, who amongst other things is associated with `private affluence and public squalor', the view that the state should spend and do more in society as the private market mechanism is insufficient to yield the best results. He is a bit unfashionable these days.

Arthur Laffer, who is associated with `supply side economics'; this is the idea that rather than tinker with the demand side to control the economy, we should tackle the production side and improve efficiency. He came up with the idea that reducing the existing high marginal rates of income tax could increase government revenue, because people would be induced to work harder or longer if they paid less income tax. He drew his famous `Laffer Curve' to demonstrate this. He tended to be laughed at by those of left wing persuasion, was influential in the United States after the middle 1980s, but the influence of his ideas declined, as his views were tested and the results came in.

C. Northcote Parkinson, associated with `Parkinson's Law', which is usually held to be that `work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion'. Actually his views are more complex and interesting, and many of the chapters of his book (Parkinson's Law) deal with expansions and variations on the theme, and he has various other interesting observations to make. Who else considers the way people circulate around cocktail parties?

Vance Packard suggested in The Wastemakers that manufactured goods include built in obsolescence and while they could be made to last longer, it was in the interest of the manufacturers not to improve quality. This is a popular view with many, especially if the item breaks down shortly after the guarantee runs out. Right wingers tend to deny it, left wingers tend to assume it is axiomatic, and dedicated believers in conspiracy theories tend to say `I told you so'.

Ralph Nader underlined the lack of participation by consumers, especially in respect of motorcars, in his book Unsafe at Any Speed. The government may legislate to try to help consumers but are often not very effective. Government is big, powerful and intrusive; producers are big, powerful and selfish. If they get together to set up rules and regulations, the consumers are frequently left out of the negotiations. If included, they lack clout as they consist of millions of individuals who are unorganised and not well informed. J.K. Galbraith had earlier pointed out in The New Industrial State that large public corporations enjoy a special and close relationship with the state. As an obvious example, the public service and the defence industries tend to develop a cosy in-club relationship and make many decisions that do not exactly benefit the masses.

Alvin Toffler, pointed out in Future Shock that technology is advancing so rapidly that it is hard for us to adjust as human beings. He stressed `the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time' and pointed out that `Most people are grotesquely unprepared to cope with it'. His view is quite widely accepted.

Lord Acton, a Nineteenth Century historian, known for the judgement `Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. It still seems relevant when judging some state leaders and important business people, and dare I say perhaps even some in the educational sector. It is still not a bad explanation, for example, of the phenomenon of directors of public companies awarding themselves huge salaries and `golden umbrellas' (massive payouts if forced out of the company), rather than really looking after either the shareholders, who are the real owners, or the customers.

Lawrence Peter, known for `The Peter Principle', which says that in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence. Disregarding the political correctness of this statement (do women not get promoted at all or do not even reach their level?), I have a reservation. While most people can point to examples of this happening, a major failing in his proposition is that it does not explain why some people are promoted to well beyond their levels of incompetency and continue to rise like hot air balloons. Peter denies this violates his Principle but is not exactly persuasive here.

Chaos theory is new, complex and challenging. Simplified, it boils down to everything is interconnected, it is all very mysterious and complicated, and changing some tiny (and possibly apparently unrelated) element can have major unforseen consequences. At its best, it reminds us how little we know and can be a major challenge. At its worst, it can lead to nihilism (I told you that you would need a good dictionary) and a desire to abandon the search for knowledge and truth as we can never really know. If you are a person who worries easily about the world and its state, and particularly if you tend to depression, it might be an idea not to get too involved in chaos theory.

Fuzzy logic is what human beings quite often indulge in when they are trying to judge things and modify their actions. `A bit more' is a fuzzy statement, whereas `Five more millimetres' is not fuzzy but quite precise. Precise categorisation, like probability theory, refers to a black and white world, whereas fuzzy logic allows for many shades of grey. If we consider hair loss in males, we can go from a luxuriant head of hair all the way to totally bald. Many men in between these two extreme states could legitimately claim to be in either group. Fuzzy logic can easily deal with such interim states and has already been put into use in computerised systems in Tokyo to slow down and stop subway trains. Using fuzzy logic, they slow carefully and come to a gentle halt, as opposed to jerking people around under the previously normal system. In another development, there is a washing machine now on the market that sets its own water temperature and amount of detergent to use, using fuzzy logic. Economic forecasting might be improved using this approach too. The social and economic benefits of success here might be great. Be warned that it is still an area of dispute and not everyone thinks the approach will prove to be generally useful

Murphy's Law that is sometimes known more crudely as Sod's Law. You may have come across this before. It is simply `What can go wrong, will go wrong' and it is used to describe many unforseen accidents and errors. A good example is the person who, asked by a child to explain the Law, used as an example the fact that if someone drops a slice of bread and butter it always falls butter-side down. In order to convince the child of the truth of the Law, the person then demonstrated it by dropping a slice of bread and butter. Sure enough the slice of bread and butter then fell butter-side up! There are certain corollaries of Murphy's Law, such as `If several things can go wrong, the one that will do the greatest amount of damage will be the one to go wrong'. The real pessimists may remark, `As Mrs. Murphy said "Murphy was an optimist"'.

8 IN CONCLUSION:

`O most lame and impotent conclusion.' (William Shakespeare, Desdemona to Iago, Othello, 148).

Going to university is a voyage of discovery. Such a journey has attendant uncertainties and you probably have initial fears. There are two areas of discovery open for you to explore and if you are fortunate you will delve into, and gain from, both. The first area is the world of learning, where you are introduced to some facts, some models, and many ideas and theories. You might even encounter a few different paradigms (more about that in your subjects). The second area of exploration is you. You might learn a lot about yourself, at first a bit about what you are. Then as you gain from your study and education, you will probably begin to change. You might then start to think about what you used to be, and also what you are becoming. Changing and improving yourself in this way is one of the greatest gains you can make from attending university, and is in my view more important to you than any set of facts that you may learn. The facts will become outdated, but a better you remains a better you for ever.

There is a great big wonderful world out there and we are lucky enough to live in it. It is complex and, although we may think we know a lot about it, we actually understand relatively little. The ancient Greeks tried to codify all existing knowledge, and on the whole they did not do a bad job. They could at least try this because back in those days humans knew so much less about the world in which they lived. We now know that the world is mysteriously complicated, perhaps more even than we imagined. Although we have accumulated much knowledge about it, as we push the boundaries of learning back, we seem to reveal new areas about which we do not know. Some of what we believe we know, perhaps even a large part, is undoubtedly incorrect. Unfortunately we do not know which part.

One lifetime is quite insufficient to learn all that is already known, let alone what remains to be known. This statement is not only true of all knowledge; it is no longer even possible to learn all there is to know about a single discipline. These days we specialise, in order to try to know as much as possible. The person who designs sewage farms is not the same person who designs aeroplanes; this is a comforting thought when flying. A cynic once defined an expert as someone who knows more and more about less and less; in some versions the statement ends as `someone who knows everything about nothing at all'. This critical view at least recognises the great need to specialise.

If you acquire a joy of learning while at university, you will have something to treasure until you die. Your life will be much more interesting and you will also probably enjoy it more. This, sadly, cannot be guaranteed, but it seems on balance to be probable. The Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham once posed the question as to whether it is better to be a pig, which is satisfied, or a human being with a brain, but also with worries and uncertainties. Fortunately, we do not actually have to make the limited choice that Bentham posed.

It is important to tread the line between enjoying the wonderful life and freedom that university offers, and studying. The former includes much socialising, making friends, eating, drinking, talking, arguing, staying up all hours and generally having a good time. The latter involves self discipline and hard work, keeping your motivation up, your learning expanding and your achievements increasing. It is a good idea to stop every now and then and take stock. You should think about what you want to do, what you have been doing recently, and consider whether you should make an adjustment in your behaviour pattern. You might need to swing a bit more effort one way or another. For many it will probably be in the direction of being a bit more sensible and doing more studying and less socialising, but this is not inevitably the case. Try to get your own balance between the two right, and then keep an eye on it. Remember that what you drifted into doing in the first three weeks of university life may not be what you should be doing in the last six weeks of the semester.

With this in mind, remember that studying at university should be fun as well as useful to you. In the past, some might have told you that your schooldays were, or would prove to be, the happiest days of your life. If we are charitable, we might say that they unintentionally misled you. For many people schooldays are not their happiest times and a university offers far more opportunities for excitement and happiness than most schools. This is a great and exciting time of your life - make the most of it! Learn and enjoy!!