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24 saturday nov 8 2003 economist sunsuntribune diversions oht landed echwl we wel gadgets dont always make our lives easier by jerome watt staff writer technology its supposed to make our lives easier but thats not always the case as often as not those high- ech gadgets you just had to have end up in the back of a closet or tucked under the stairs collecting dust never to be used again because they did not deliver on advertisedpromises tony pamment known as the computer guy in his royal lepage realty office in richmond hill has seen his fair share of tech nology hangups mr pamment is a trainer at the toronto board of realtors and helps real estate agents learn new technologies he has trained peo ple on new technology for the past 12years thats why ive got white hair he joked v in his business technology is essential and can make things run much more efficiently it allows an agent to maintain contact if nothing else he said the biggest problem is getting a hold of an agent and thats half the battle but technology needs to be approached cautiously he said a palm heldcell phone device looks like a winner but if the cell phone portion goes down you tbse both devices when it gets repaired mr pamment said its a wonderful concept he said but if one piece of that device goes wrong both parts are effectively unavailable to you there comes a point where this allinone thing is not practical allinone devices may per form several functions he said but usually end up performing all those functions worse than a device solely devoted to a task in another case mr pamment could make use of his cell phone and laptop computer to keep con nected with the internet but the cord to hook his cell phone with his computer is too expensive same situation with mail- merge programs that make mass mailings easier mr pamment said while printing letters is easy with the program getting a print er to print the envelopes is diffi cult most printers you have to feed the envelopes one at a time unless you buy an envelope feed er he said if the printer is 1000 the envelope feeder is 900 most people end up printing their envelopes on an oldfash ioned typewriter he said often mr pamment said the thicker and more complicated the staff photosteve somerville manual the less likely people are to use the device the nintendo game cube sold like hotcakes when it came out a little over two years ago said linda balboul manager at gamers world in thornhill but now the trend has dropped off she said the game cube was quickly eclipsed by video game systems such as the sony playstation2 that have a dvd player see poor page 26 evelyn wolf dirty knees fallen leaves natures gift to gardeners qfd like to start using all the leaves we have in our yard at this time of year in my garden bcft ive been told they can rot and create a big mess can i use them directly on my garden beds a thats absolute gold falling from your trees gardeners gold yes you can and should use your fallen leaves in your garden for many reasons all you need to do to prevent rot problems is chop them up a bit to increase air flow the fallen leaves tf deciduous trees are a major part of natures intricate selfsustaining system through this annual cycle of shedding rest and renewal soil is given an annual boost of organic matter to keep it alive arid able to feed and sustain plant life somehow though we have come to think of autumn leaves as garden waste that needs to be cleaned away lets look more closely at this annual gardening ritual each autumn we put out 25 or more to buy extra large bags to cope with the task of bagging leaves special gadgets to help keep the bags open while you rake and stuff can also be bought for a few more dollars we then haul dozens of these full bags to sit at the curb for a couple of weeks a real eye sore until yard waste pickup day on this day your tax dollars go toward paying someone around 2 per bag to pick up this waste they then see use page 26 a great way to advertise your pet related business veterinarian pet grooming pet food pet daycare pet photography carpet cleaning duct cleaning be part ofthis highly read new and exciting special secnonl petcra2ywillbepubushed0ntuesdayn0v2s call your advertising sales representative today xv tyxn- r- twa a a a m m m m m m m m m m m h m m m m m m m n h 33eh steve tonrier ward 3 city councillor for lower property taxes public notice markham centre on july 8 2003 the following council members went on record voting yes to the approval draft plan of a subdivision for markham centre lets hold council members d cousens f scarpitti t wong s daurio j virgilio j heath k usman d horchik and a chiu accountable for the projected 3540 new residential units council moved by j virgilio affirms hydro for profit 200203 profit 4 million pooled with property taxes info hotline 9054153635