But put it all together and the background electrical field in your office suddenly reaches particularly high levels

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But put it all together and the background electrical field in your office suddenly reaches particularly high levels, with "hot spots" not just around the equipment being used but in the spaghetti of cables found under most office desks.Staff in offices with high fields are more likely to develop skin problems, regular headaches and general fatigue from these emissions. A report published by the Swedish Work Environment Fund established beyond doubt that emissions from monitors affect mercury- amalgam tooth fillings.In normal conditions, the amalgam releases small amounts of mercury vapour, but exposure to certain screens causes higher, toxic, levels to be released.Electrical equipment may not seem harmful (excluding the notorious stomach- turning coffee machine). But the "guidance" on good practice, laced with a liberal dose of scepticism about the reported harmful effects of computer equipment, is inadequate.Eighty per cent of employees are bothered by VDUs, and that does not mean just the odd headache. True to form, the Government has opted for the minimum standards allowed, even though the directive is itself weaker than rules already in place in Scandinavia, where the leading ergonomic research is done. According to the regulations, British companies must issue employees with adjustable stands and chairs, keyboards separate from system units and footrests for staff who want them. But there is no sign of their being tightened, despite research suggesting that technology can cause damage which outweighs productivity gains. UK legislation on computers in the workplace, which becomes compulsory in 1996, was forced on Britain by a European directive. Britain has one of the laxest sets of rules in Europe governing the use of PCs and other office equipment.

In his view, we should stop thinking of Microsoft as the shark, and accept that it now constitutes the pond.. But Windows 95 remains "vapourware" - software that is promised but not yet a reality. Should they wait? Billions of dollars worldwide await such purchasing decisions.Schulman's conclusion is one that the judge will doubtless note. As corporations downsize or upgrade their systems, whose software should they choose? There are plenty of choices, notably IBM's OS/2 Warp and the new Mac operating systems, which fulfil the macho credentials claimed for Windows 95.

Instead, he writes, "what's unreasonable is Microsoft's denials".These are serious allegations. He recognises the commercial imperative behind its "sensible compromises", and eschews the attacks on Windows 95 by partisan operating system fanatics as silly stuff. Not only is much of it derived from Microsoft's existing systems, but much is not new at all; it is already in use in Windows 3.1, in source code labelled "prototype".The author has no ideological axe to grind with Microsoft. This makes it as grown- up as such operating systems as Unix or VMS, which are used to power minicomputers and mainframes. The jump from 8 to 32 bits is like the leap from steam turbine to jet propulsion.Schulman found that many of Microsoft's claims for Windows 95 since it was first announced were unfounded The system uses DOS, or DOS-like code, continually And it's far from being all 32-bit. So it informs the world that a miracle is imminent: a brand-new system, Windows 95, which looks and feels beautiful, and is "32-bit" - ie, it can address far more memory addresses than the traditional 8 bits of a PC. Having conquered the computing desktop with Windows, a system widely seen as technically inadequate, Microsoft wants its next release to silence the sceptics.