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Show Bookstore From front page it. I think staff and faculty on campus miss being able to just pop down there, "Ellis said. "I think when the Bookstore is done and back on campus, it will have a great feeling to it. It will have nice bright lights and will be exposed to the outside, so there will be natural light that comes in. Every thing will be brand new and it will be much bigger." The biggest advantage for the bookstore's current location is the parking accessibility, but Ellissaid there are plans to make the bookstore more accessible when it moves back on campus. "There will be a parking lot in lot A-10 that will be an attendant paylot so when students want to just pop into campus and pick up a book, they won't have to put money in a meter. They can drive into a lot, run in and spend as much time as they want and not have to worry about when the meter expires. So accessibility to the bookstore and the union will be better when the bookstore comes back." Ellis reminded students that Wildcat Lanes sells last-minute necessities from the bookstore for the convenience of students. Got a hot news tip? Call The Signpost hotline 626-7121 MAIN LOBBY j STEWART LIBRARY Lunch, Dinncrl (Snacks! Tim tFQJJUL C-OiLon C, PHONE ffp7 6738 "Jopy center Letters to Communication, thinking To the editor: I was disappointed by the Luddite views expressed in the May 17 Signpost Viewpoint ("Technology needs to pull over into the slow lane"). The article was way off the mark. Let me address a few of the more obvious gaffes. First, the biggie: "Communication is the first victim of the information highway." Say what? I had to look twice to be sure this wasn't another infamous Signpost typo. Communication is greatly facilitated by the information superhighway. The Internet and other on-line services allow you to communicate in real time, if you'd like with people all over the world. You can send in seconds documents that would take days be mailed. You can even send Visa U.S.A. Inc. 1995 and receive sound and visual data. The Signpost's argument against electroniccommunication is that it eliminates essential nonverbal cues from conversation. ("The writer must have just taken Interpersonal Communication," one person told me.) Even if this statement is true, why is electronic communications a bigger offender than the telephone, the written letter, or even the newspaper?Next is the statement that the computer "hinders creative thinking." Not true. Computers can help people express creative ideas by making tedious tasks (like typing and revising) easier. But thought and creativity are still required. A word processor won't help you if you have nothing to say. Because stuff happens. Hey this is Corporate America. We have to keep it clean. ,?1U "ft1! v the editor enhanced by advances The a rticle does make one good point. Some people do rely too much on spell checkers. The average word processor can't differentiate between there, their and they're. But I can hardly believe that "dictionaries will soon be obsolete."Then there's the statement that computers can be used to spread pornography. Have you turned on the TV lately? Have you been to the video store? Have you seen the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue? I'm not saying there's no pornography on the Internet, but if you want to eliminate smut, there's a moreeffectiveplacetostart. Like Melrose Place. As the article states, there is the problem with computers crashing. It happens. But not having a backup plan is a mistake on the part of the user, not the computer. Computers can't be VISA It's every where you want to be. blamed for human stupidity. Finally, there's the statement that "typewriters have almost become obsolete." (is this a bad thing? Outhouses are nearly obsolete, but we hardly lament that fact.) Nonsense. I know people that use typewriters and computers every day. The typewriter is not that close to extinction.In short, these recent technological advances are not inherently bad, any more than 1-15 is. The information highway doesn't need to be slowed down; people need to be brought up to speed on how to use it. It's a long and involved process, to be sure, but it's better than becoming road kill on the information superhighway. Michael Martin WSU student |