PUNCH WITH CARE

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 14

PUNCH WITH CARE

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When a computer makes a mistake in examination results there is a certain amount of glee among mere mortals because they have been told for so long that the machine does not share their frailties . . . Somewhere along the line an operator has punched a hole in the wrong space on a card ... Mr J. R. Phillips, manager of the Government Computer Centre, could not say how long it would take to process the results by pre-computer methods, but it would be almost impossible to do it manually.—News. The Computer is an excellent Servant, But an evil Master. It can run up your Buildings and your Bridges Cheaper and faster; It can perform prodigious arithmetical, Mathematical, alphabetical Feats, and even Poetical Researches have been undertaken Was Shakespeare really Bacon? Just feed the Computer with Quotations, Verbal Coincidences, Enumerations Of This and That, and you can’t go wrong, Bacon was really Shakespeare, all along! You mustn’t indiscriminately cram It, You have to PRO-GRAMME It. You can double and re-double Your Exam Results and still save Trouble, The Computer won’t tell you if you’re raving Mad, or if the Trouble’s worth Saving. If you’re too tired or too lazy To change a System that’s crazy, The Computer may take up the Slack for you, It won’t stiffen your Back for you. A World Computer Centre With Results by the Million to enter, Punching Holes by the Billion annually! Because Nobody could do It MANUALLY, The Order would be far too TALL? But why Anyone should do It at All, Is the Question that well might occur, When we punch a Hole, and we err, Feed TlflAT into your Computer, Sir!