The committee described 60-year-old Saariaho as a unique composer "who re-examines what music can be" by combining acoustic instruments with electronics and computers.

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Huge stores hawking a wildly diverse range of complex electronics, computers and appliances with minimal staffing virtually guarantees that repeat customers will be rare.

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In 1987 Korean firms were just beginning to compete with Americans and Japanese in computers and other high-end electronics.

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With the invention of complex control systems, and especially with the invention of solid state electronics and the computers, we have been loosing our mental jobs to the machines.

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In a country packed with electronics firms, Japanese workers of course have lots of computers on their desks.

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It does this with power electronics--semiconductors similar to the ones in computers.

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And Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer went big with them first at the Consumer Electronics Show, showing off not one, but three tablet computers last year.

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