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Much of the debate sprang from an exaggerated eye-
catcher at the top of the advertisement stating: “You can
now be jailed for up to five years if you publicly take a
position in print during federal elections.”

The half-page display, featuring mugshots of Prime
Minister Trudeau, Progressive Conservative Leader Brian
Mulroney and New Democrat Leader Ed Broadbent,
declares: “These men used our Parliament to stifle our
freedom of speech during elections. They took 40 minutes to
do it.

“In the time it took you to drive to work or make dinner,
one of our precious freedoms was snatched from us.”

But the new Canada Elections Act does nothing of the
sort, although it does limit in some ways the role lobby
groups can play in federal election’ campaigns.

candidate but can find no one to pick up the tab, he may
collect 26 signatures, pay $200 and run as an independent

wie
Appin ty

candidate subject to normal expense limitations.
snes

Or, it could have run one-sided advertisements, similar
to that opposing ‘the Elections Act, the day before the
election or on election day when parties and candidates were
unable to respond.

David Somerville, National Citizens Coalition spokes-
man, said fear of a lobby group’s power is unfounded.
“Instead of talking about a ‘lobby group,’ let's talk about our
30,000 members and their rights.”

vd Ey SAY

CLEAN-UP

BEDDING
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Odds and Ends of Waterbeds

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ever.”

‘The computer may be teady, but is the owner? Many
people have a built-in resistance to letting a computer
change their way of doing thifgs. Even if they overcome
that resistance, it is an open question whether they're
better off in the long run with a computer.

Many computer owners struggle to find uses for
their machines. You could file phone numbers and
addresses in a compbter, for instance, but looking up the
information in a pocket book makes a lot more sense.

NOW THE TRUTH

Sooner or later every computer owner discovers one
truth about his machine that no salesman will ever

ion: C s lend i ingly well to
doing useless things.

There is no shortage of attempts to prove small
computers useful to everybody, but most proceed from an
infatuation with marvellous technology which is suddenly

ailable to anyone with $1,000 to spend.

A book called 1003 Things To Do With Your Personal
Computer, by Mark Sawusch (Tab Books, $14.50), tries to
justify small computers by showing how versatile they
are. But the majority of the recommended functions
appear to have little use to most people.

For example, one suggestion is to get a computer to
“compose” random music. In a simple program, “the
songs that were produced could only be compared to a
child randomly hitting piano keys.”

The author trying a more
program that follows certain rules in selecting notes —
such as not allowing more than five consecutive des-
eending notes — and presumably leads to better results.

RUN TRAINS

Another “Model railroading
with a large layout may wish to automate the trains,
lights, switches ... One hobbyist went so far as to print
train schedules, tickets, and analyse freight business on
his personal computer.”

Other possibilities include programs that write

erobeword poetry” (the words of your favorite poem are }
arranged into something like a crossword puzzle format);
store your favorite lines of literature for future retrieval;
and create an inventory of all food items in the kitchen
which “could be useful in determining whether a given
receipe can be prepared.”

There is no end to the useless things a computer can
do, But the ability to do them extremely well has been
frequently and seriously explored.

A Scientific American ine article il a
Yale University professor's attempt to get a computer to
generate random prose that resembles English.

This amounts to simulating an army of monkeys
pounding at typewriters and then having the computer
analyse the results. Would such an army ever produce
the play Hamlet?

ODDS HIGH

We learn, to our reassurance but not our surprise,
that the odds against'the monkeys writing just a few real
words in sequence ate astronomically high.

The author of the article also describes how it's
possible to convert “literature into gibberish” by feeding
a given passage into a computer, which analyses patterns
of letters and then produces original “prose” in the style
of the sample.

“With a little thought and effort, it is possible to
create a program that accepts as its input great master-
works of literature and nonetheless produces as its
output utter nonsense. In goes the last act of Macbeth;
out comes a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.

“Now that is data processing.”

B.C.’s computer
funding ‘a joke’

VANCOUVER (CP) —The said Noel Herron, principal of

B.C. government is spawning
a generation of computer il-
literates, says a Vancouver
school prii

The lack of provincial fi-
nancing for computer train-
ing is “almost a standing
joke,” among ed who

Moberly elementary.

Herron made his predic-
tion in an interview after
being told that British Col-
umbia shares the dubious

are afraid B.C. students will
end up at a definite dis-
advantage when they com-
pete for high technology jobs,

with d
land of being the only prov-
inces that provide no regular
financing for computer edu-
cation.

OFFICE AID

LUELLA ANDREASHUK
218-1 1th Avenue, Castlegar
Ph. 365-6658

Fickle
food
fads

CALGARY (CP) — The art
of selling bread, milk and
char-broiled steaks boils
down to the old adage: the
customer is always right.

Marketing experts speak.
ing at a food industry con
ference which drew repre.
sentatives of 50 food produ-
cers, processing firms and
government agencies hit on
that point.

Companies must be sensi-
tive to changes in the con.
sumer psyche and be pre-
pared to exploit them. But
traditional food-buying atti
tudes have been changing for
more than a decade so ap-
plying the maxim is harder
than it seems, the conference
heard.

Dunean Holmes, the flam-
boyant communications vice-
president of Keg Restaurants
Ltd. of Burnaby, held up the
company’s original wooden
paddleboard menu.

Holmes said when the Keg
and Cleaver rstaurants first
opened in Western Canada 13
years ago, the aim was to
emulate the laid-back dining
pioneered in California.
Young people who came of
ee im the 1960s weren't
drawn to the sometimes
daunting atmosphere of trad-
itional eateries.

So Keg restaurants fea-
tured short, simple menus,
unintimidating wine lists and
waiters who resembled their
youthful customers and in-
sisted on being on a first-
name basis.

DINING REVOLUTION

Holmes credits the concept

for a dining revolution but
said the Keg’s original cli-
entele is aging so the chain,
now with 126 outlets and a
projected 10 million custom-
ers this year, began making
changes.
The paddleboard was one
of the first things to go as the
restaurant expanded its
menu to add a range of ap-
petizers and trendy dishes.
Light entrees catered to the
growing class of fitness-cons-
cious customers.

“We were finding they just
weren't coming back for this
giant steak as often as we'd
like them to,” said Holmes.

But the company was
careful to maintain quality
and Holmes said the cost of-
ten is not passed on in higher
prices.

Food consumers have be-
come quality con3cious and
are willing to pay for it, sev-
eral speakers said.

Morton Satin, president of
Saskatoon-based Pro Staf
Mills Ltd. and a former re-
searcher for the Steinberg
supermarket chain, said spec-
ialty and high-fibre breads
became popular because buy-
ers believed they had higher
quality and health benefits,
even though white bread
often uses the same ingredi-
ents.

The situation was bolster-
ed by supermarkets which
cut prices on white bread,
creating the impression it
had even less value, said
Satin.

“All can say is it will give
some indication of our ability
to extend letter carrier ser-
viee for the next six to eight
months,” he told reporters
later.

probably think that it is
major. It: depends on where
you live.”

Warren told the committee
the post office has extended

Albert, who said extensions
that have taker place are

but are far less than
required.

Maintaining adequte ser-
vice for Canadians was one of
the requirements laid down
by Parliament when Canada
Post Corp. was created, but
the guide doesn't seem to
have been followed, Hovdebo
added.

competing unfairly with
small business by extending
its operations to new areas in
efforts to raise revenues and
reduce its deficit.

POINTS TO DEAL
He cited a recently an-
nounced deal between Can
rates for the balance of 1964. ada Post and Consumers

same effective rates of tax,

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