Planning for obsolescence Remember 5 1/4-inch floppy disks? How about the Iomega Zip drive? Unless you've been around technology a long time, these once-hot products are nowhere in your lexicon. Like it or not, owing to the fast pace of progress in the world of computers, obsolescence is almost built into today's technological products, just as it was built into yesterday's. That means you're wise to be thinking about obsolescence and questioning how to deal with it. Q: I have a question I hope you can help me with. Do you think PCs purchased today will be obsolete within two years or so because of faster processor speeds and new software that demands it? A: No. Most companies depreciate computers over three to five years, which means they do not plan on replacing those computers until that timeframe is up. Even if technology could advance at such a pace that today's computers would be obsolete in two years, tech companies would be unwise to follow this path. There's another way to look at obsolescence as well: No technological product is obsolete as long as it continues to perform the job for which you originally purchased it. The computer you buy today to crunch numbers or compose your e-mail will most likely still be able to perform those tasks many years from now.

重点词汇：

obsolescence (n.) 过时 lexicon (n.) to deal with 面对，处理 processor (n.) （电脑）处理器 to depreciate (v.) 贬值 to plan on 计划；打算 unwise (adj.) 不智的；愚蠢的 to perform (v.) 进行；执行 to crunch numbers 数字计算