There is an old trick used by salesmen who work for Japanese trading houses: Use twelve industry-specific technical terms in a conversation and you can pass as an expert in that industry. Given how much stuff Japan has been able to sell to the rest of the world, this method seems quite sound.

I've gotten an average of one message every two months from different people requesting a real good, comprehensive dictionary of computer-related technical terms because they want to sound like, be, or test an expert. Sorry I put the question off for so long. Here's making up for lost time: Although not formally a computer-term dictionary, Newton's Telecom Dictionary, published by Telecom Books of New York, can easily be called one because of the blurring line between a computer and a telecommunications device. It is easy to read, informative, funny, and - an important feature of a reference book - complete (the 15th edition is more than 900 pages long). I could go on and on about it, but I think the words of author Harry Newton that appear on the back cover of the 14th edition say it all:

I wrote this book for those of us new and old to the world's most exciting industry. I deliberately didn't write a technical book. I wrote a business book. I explain technical concepts in non-technical, business language. Some of my definitions are short. Some are encyclopedic. My focus is totally practical. How you can benefit. Pitfalls to watch out for. Use this book in your day-to-day business life. Dip into it before a meeting with a vendor, a customer or a boss. Dip into it as you write or read a sales proposal. I've got 18 years in this book. It better be good.

Newton's Telecom Dictionary can be had through any decent-sized bookstore, Internet book seller, or the Telecom Books website (http://www.telecombooks.com). Mr. Newton is also blessed with a wonderful sense of humor. After you've obtained a copy, be sure to look up his definition of the term "telephone."

Another peril of childhood

Many thanks to the reader in the Netherlands who contacted me on repetitive strain injury (better known as RSI) and its effect on children. I checked with some of my medical sources on RSI and was told that traditionally the affliction has not been a problem with many children since there are almost no activities they engage in that can be described as repetitive (except, perhaps, watching television). Dickens' world of Oliver Twist and child factory slaves is supposed to be nothing more than uncomfortable history in modern, civilized nations. However, video games and personal computers might just change all that.

What goes for adults and keyboards also goes for children. Your body doesn't know, or care, if you spend many non-stop hours using a computer keyboard doing cost analysis or killing space aliens. The detrimental effects to the hands, arms, and other connected anatomy are the same. As I have been saying in this magazine for years: using a computer too much can cripple you for the rest of your life. Kids whose bodies are still developing are more easily prone to physical damage from RSI. Just use your imagination for a moment. Not pretty, is it?

If any readers of this column have any stories about children with RSI, please drop me a line. I'd like to hear from you.

Tarot cards anyone?

Well, looks like this is it! July is the month that, according to some interpretations of Nostradamus' predictions, the world is going to come to an end. Pity. I was just getting used to the place.

As you might guess, I'm quite skeptical of this prediction. However, as long as people are thinking about prophesy, I would like to make a prediction of my own. Looking into my crystal ball, I see that NT servers will be virtually gone by the year 2001. That's right folks! If the current trend continues, and all indications are that it will, Linux will do to NT servers what WordPerfect did to WordStar by 2001, and in about the same length of time. Windows desktop systems are a different matter, but most NT servers will probably be gone by then. History does repeat itself. Thus it stands to reason that history is a form of prophesy, something most prophets (and industry analysts) already know.

I have not heard of any reference to Bill Gates or Microsoft in Nostradamus' book of predictions. Perhaps, when he looked into the future, he was just as confused by Windows as the rest of us are.