Advantages and Limitations of the Computer

Two features of the computer strongly contribute to the rapid replacement of many "paper and pencil" tools. These are speed and accuracy. A computer is limited only by the speed at which electrical signals can be transmitted. This enables even personal computers to execute millions of operations per second in processing raw facts called data into a usable form known as information. The computer's speed enables it to carry out a desired operation in a fraction of the time needed to do the same thing manually. In terms of accuracy, a computer will do exactly what it is instructed to do without error. This enables the com­puter to repeat the same operations as many times as necessary, without error.

Of course, the computer does have limitations. A computer does not have reasoning capabilities. Rather, it must use instructions from the user to process the data the user inputs. If either the instructions or the data entered are incorrect, the results from the computer will also be incorrect. The fact that a computer can generate erroneous results has led to use of the term computer error. How­ever, this term is itself in error since the problem is not with the computer, but with the instructions or data given it by the human user. An acronym even exists to describe this process: GIGO—garbage in, garbage out! So when you receive an incorrect bill or are charged an incorrect amount by a computerized checkout system, remember it's not the computer that has caused the problem; it's the data or instructions input by a human user!

Since computers play such a large role in our lives, it is very useful to have at least a basic understanding of how they work and what they can and cannot do. In this section, we will look at what a computer can do, the parts of the com­puter and some ideas on computer use.

As mentioned earlier, a computer processes data into information. Recall that data are the raw facts that are entered into the computer for processing and that information is data that have been processed into a form that is useful to the user. Data can be in the form of numbers, letters of the alphabet, or any other type of symbols. On the other hand, information is the arrangement of data into tables, graphs, and reports. Because of this terminology, the operations that the computer performs are sometimes referred to as data processing.

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