Dear Colleagues This is an anecdote. Back in 2006, I was writing quite a lot of statements of purpose and application letters as part of the application process for admission to PhD. Then I collected all those documents in a single place and went to my teacher in Calcutta University to get his recommendation letters. He smiled and told me that instead of writing 'knowledge of computer', the phrase should be written as 'knowledge of computing'. I realized my mistake and corrected it. Since then I have never used the phrase "knowledge of computer", instead put the phrase of knowledge of computing. When I see the phrase knowledge of computing, it reminds me of his smile immediately. So, when today I saw the phrase quite frequently I searched for the connotations of the words 'computer' and 'computing'. The definitions given in wikipedia are: Computer: A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer) Computing: /"In a general way, we can define computing to mean any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computers. Thus, computing includes designing and building hardware and software systems for a wide range of purposes; processing, structuring, and managing various kinds of information; doing scientific studies using computers; making computer systems behave intelligently; creating and using communications and entertainment media; finding and gathering information relevant to any particular purpose, and so on. The list is virtually endless, and the possibilities are vast." (Source: /The Joint Task Force for Computing Curricula 2005. Computing Curricula 2005: The Overview Report (pdf) http://www.acm.org/education/curric_vols/CC2005-March06Final.pdf, quoted in, /http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing). /Essentially, these terms have a relationship but they evoke different meanings. Best greetings, Atanu Garai -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.