Day 134 - 13 Jun 95 - Page 10


     
     1        sort of table that we see in bundle XII at page 700.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The last document in what?
     4
     5   MR. RAMPTON:  In E is a crew turnover report which, as your
     6        Lordship observed -----
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I see that, but that in itself is only a
     9        printout from the computer.
    10
    11   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I am suggesting -- it may be if you were
    14        a particularly perverse sort of person, instead of just
    15        pressing three keys on your computer and getting something
    16        like page 700, you would assemble 50 pieces of paper like
    17        the last sheet in E and then word process it out.  But what
    18        it seems to me, just as you would press certain keys on
    19        your computer to get a printout in the form which is the
    20        last sheet in E, so you would press certain other keys on
    21        your computer and get something like 700.
    22
    23   MR. RAMPTON:  It might be so.  I do not know.
    24
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I mean, one gradually gets used to
    26        appreciating what computers can do.  There will be
    27        somewhere in the computer a running record of the number of
    28        stores which are open, and there will be all sorts of
    29        information having been pumped in by various individuals
    30        all over the country and in Head Office.
    31
    32        The magic of a computer enables one every so often to just
    33        press a few keys and get a printout like page 700.  Without
    34        talking too much, if I can give you an example, in a modern
    35        barristers' clerk's room, all sorts of information about
    36        the work which the barrister has done, the fees charged and
    37        everything, is put in ---
    38
    39   MR. RAMPTON:  It seems to be, yes.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  -- once a month.  One of the staff in the
    42        clerk's room presses about four keys on his keyboard and
    43        out comes what is called an "Aged Debt Report" which means
    44        it tells you how much you are owed in fees, how much has
    45        been owing for three months, how much between three and
    46        six, how much between six and a year, and we all know how
    47        aged some of debts are.  But there is not a single bit of
    48        paper in the room which has contributed to that end
    49        result.  That is why I describe it as "magic".  I would
    50        have thought much the same process has led to this.  (To 
    51        the witness):   But do you know? 
    52        A.  I know about certain lines of it.  If I explain then 
    53        perhaps the crew turnover?
    54
    55   Q.   Having talked far too much, I suggest you tell us about the
    56        lines you know and Ms. Steel can ask for any further
    57        information she wants.
    58        A.  For example, for the crew turnover, it is held on
    59        computer, but the only way we in Human Resources -- I know
    60        the person who compiles this can actually obtain the figure

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