練習(xí):

　　Buying computer and software

　　At first, I was reluctant to buy computer products completely online. Many of the online computer stores used to sell exclusively through printed catalogs, addressing the technically astute. I found those printed catalogs intimidating and confusing. And preferred to go to a physical store, where knowledgeable sales people could guide me through the maze of choices, explaining the benefits and risks and costs.

　　When egghead, the prominent software retailer, closed its physical stores and decided to operate solely online, I was shocked and disappointed, as I had shopped hardware or software regularly at the local egghead store and depended on expertise, judgment and advice from their sales people. Also, I greatly valued the fact that when I brought new add-ons or upgrades for my PC, I could pay to have them installed on the spot. But now I was forced to learn more about computers than I ever expected to learn. As it turns out, that’s probably a good thing for me and for my budget.

　　Today, the computer industry is a commodity, standards-driven marketplace. Computer “manufactures” are really just assembles. They buy processors from one, software, disks, memories, from other sources, and assemble them into systems. The competition is fierce and the profit margins are slim. In terms of the basic specs—speed, memory, and storage—what we now define as a “complete system” for home use would have made a wealthy technical guru tremble with jealousy ten years ago.

　　Fifteen years ago, is seemed inconceivable that an ordinary individual would ever need a 100 MHZ machine with 1 gigabyte of disk storage space. Yet, with the predictable improvement of technology, the speed of commercially available processors doubles about every 18 months according to a rule of thumb (known as “Moore’s law”). While at some point, technology must meet barriers that will slow the pace of change, the computer industry has been adapting at this incredibly rapid rate for more than two decades now, with great regularity. And the software industry has been keeping in lock step with these hardware developments by making each new version of the common applications that people depend upon more and more complex and bulky, requesting the full capacity of the latest and greatest hardware. I believe this software inflation results from the consequences of human nature—software expands to fill the capacity available for it.

　　Basically, “Moore’s law” plus software inflation mean today’s computer system will not last. And the new versions of software will make your equipment painfully slow in two years, and obsolete in four. To stay compatible with other people with whom you have to share files, you should invest time learning about these add-ons gadgets, etc. to upgrade your system. Thus you can make full use of the shopping resources on the Internet, and save again and again.

　　參考譯文:

　　購買電腦和軟件

　　剛開始的時(shí)候, 我不太情愿完全依靠網(wǎng)絡(luò)購買電腦產(chǎn)品.許多網(wǎng)上電腦商店過去主要靠打出來的產(chǎn)品目錄進(jìn)行銷售, 上面清楚地寫明了技術(shù)需求.但是我總認(rèn) 為那樣的產(chǎn)品目錄看起來讓人感覺有些發(fā)怵而且稀里糊涂的, 所以我還是偏愛實(shí)體商店, 因?yàn)槟抢镉芯�通業(yè)務(wù)的銷售人員, 他們能指引我走出迷宮做出選擇, 他們還 能向我解釋產(chǎn)品的優(yōu)點(diǎn),風(fēng)險(xiǎn)性和成本.

　　當(dāng)著名的軟件銷售商Egghead關(guān)閉實(shí)體店鋪, 決定只走網(wǎng)絡(luò)運(yùn)營路線的時(shí)候我感覺震驚和失望.因?yàn)槲铱偸嵌ㄆ诘紼gghead在當(dāng)?shù)氐膶?shí)體店鋪去 購買軟件和硬件, 仰仗那里的銷售人員的專業(yè)技能,判斷力和經(jīng)驗(yàn).還有一點(diǎn)讓我非�？粗氐氖�: 每當(dāng)我購買新的附加軟件或是將我的個(gè)人電腦升級(jí)時(shí), 我只需付些 費(fèi)用就可以讓他們?cè)诂F(xiàn)場(chǎng)給我安裝完畢.但是現(xiàn)在我卻被迫去了解更多的電腦知識(shí), 而我以前是不需要了解這么多的.但是后來發(fā)現(xiàn), 這或許對(duì)我來說是件好事, 而 且節(jié)省了我的預(yù)算.

　　今天, 計(jì)算機(jī)產(chǎn)業(yè)是一種商品, 是一個(gè)以標(biāo)準(zhǔn)為市場(chǎng)導(dǎo)向的市場(chǎng).計(jì)算機(jī)”制造者”們實(shí)際上只不過是組裝者.他們從某個(gè)渠道購買處理器, 從其它渠道購買 軟件,光盤和內(nèi)存, 然后將它們組裝成系統(tǒng).競(jìng)爭(zhēng)是激烈的, 利潤空間也不大.從最基本的配置——速度,內(nèi)存和硬盤空間——來講, 我們現(xiàn)在所定義的家用”全套 系統(tǒng)”足以讓十年前富有的技術(shù)權(quán)威羨慕地發(fā)顫不可.

　　15年以前, 似乎難以想象一個(gè)普通人會(huì)需要100兆的機(jī)器和十億字節(jié)的磁盤存儲(chǔ)空間.然而, 隨著可以預(yù)見的技術(shù)進(jìn)步, 僅憑經(jīng)驗(yàn)(被稱為”摩爾定 律”)就可以推知: 商用存儲(chǔ)器的速度每隔18個(gè)月就會(huì)成倍增長.然而, 技術(shù)必定會(huì)在某個(gè)時(shí)候遇上某種障礙, 使其減緩變化的步伐.計(jì)算機(jī)產(chǎn)業(yè)在最近二十年 來, 一直處于令人難以置信的發(fā)展速度, 到現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)穩(wěn)步發(fā)展了.軟件產(chǎn)業(yè)一直與硬件發(fā)展保持著齊肩并進(jìn)的態(tài)勢(shì), 人們最常用的應(yīng)用軟件的更新版本愈發(fā)復(fù)雜與寵大, 只有用最新及功能最強(qiáng)大的硬件才能操作使用.我認(rèn)為軟件企業(yè)的這種膨脹源于人類的天性——軟件需要擴(kuò)展以充分利用已有的空間.

　　從根本上來講, “摩爾”定律加上軟件膨脹就意味著當(dāng)今的計(jì)算機(jī)系統(tǒng)不會(huì)維持長久.更新的軟件版本會(huì)在兩年內(nèi)使你的裝備顯得速度極慢, 四年以后就該淘 汰了.為了與和你共享文件的其他人步調(diào)保持一致, 你需要花些時(shí)間了解這些附加軟件,小工具等, 以便將你的計(jì)算機(jī)系統(tǒng)升級(jí).因此, 你可以充分利用網(wǎng)上購物資 源, 一遍又一遍地反復(fù)保存更新軟件和工具.

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