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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 2009-12-16, Page 7Goderich Signal -Star, Wednesday, December 16, 2009 - Page 7 • • irnion Ideal Christmas gifts don't poop in the box To the Editor; The holiday season is quickly approach- ing and thoughts of gift -giving and receiv- ing are running rampant. Children are writ- ing letters to Santa and wishing, dreaming and hoping to receive the presents high on their lists. On the lists of many children is a puppy Letters opinion and on Christmas morning many will run downstairs hoping to see a cute, cuddly puppy under the tree. Those who give a puppy for Christmas may do so anticipat- ing that it will bring their family or chil- dren joy, but Christmas puppies often end in heartbreak and tragedy. Puppies (or any animals for that matter) should not be given as gifts. Far too often the recipients of pets aren't ready to make the commitment that a pet requires. Similarly, far too often Christmas puppies are novelties. Once the novelty Ins worn off, the kids (or recipient) may forget Suite meters allow tenants to pay for actual consumption From page 6 Minister of Energy and Infrastruc- ture and Ted McMeekin, Minister of Consumer Services, announced the proposed new Energy Consumer Pro- tection Act, which would give Ontar- io families comfort in knowing they can rely on fair business practices. If passed, this legislation would pro- tect consumers from hidden contract costs, excessive cancellation fees, "negative -option" contract renewals, and other unfair industry practices. There would be greater fairness and transparency for consumers through rate comparisons, plain language con- tract disclosure, enhanced rights to cancel contracts and a new licensing and training regime, including man- datory oral disclosure and ID badges. Tenants would have the opportu- nity to control their own energy costs through individual suite metering in apartment buildings. A suite meter al- lows a tenant to pay for their electric- ity based on their actual consumption. This means consumers could lower their electricity bills by conserving or shifting their usage. We want to help families make wise and informed energy choices. To find out more about the Energy Consum- er Protection Act, please contact my constituency office in Clinton (519- 482-5630) or Kincardine (519-396- 3007). Sincerely, Carol Mitchell, M.P.P. Huron -Bruce about their promise to help take care of the puppy. Will the other people in the house- hold be able to take on that commitment? Sadly, often the answer is "no" and far too many puppies end up tossed away — weeks or months after the holiday season they end up in overcrowded shelters. One huge issue with puppies purchased as gifts is where they originate from. Far too often Christmas puppies do not come from reputable breeders. Rather they are purchased from pet stores. That puppy in the window often has a heartbreaking be- ginning — it is from a puppy mill. Reputable breeders have put the wel- fare of their dogs before profit. They have extensive screening programs and do not need to and will not sell their puppies to pet stores. The Humane Society International/ Canada states that animal welfare groups believe that "the vast majority of puppies sold in pet stores in Canada come from puppy mills" (http: //www• hsicanada. ca/ companion_animals/puppy_mills/). While there appears to be no universal definition, most agree that puppy mills are See CHRISTMAS, Page 13 Alive and well in the dead zone called Wainfleet Everybody told me I needed a new com- puter so I went out and bought one. The Acer Aspire is a spiffy -looking laptop with approximately three hundred features I will never use. I use a computer exclusively to receive and send e-mails and browse the poetic messages left in the spam depart- ment. "Your schlong could be schlonger." Who comes up with this stuff? Howie Mandel? Everybody said I needed new software to go with the new computer because that system was really old. I think it was Storm Windows One. So I bought new software and the day after I bought the computer I was told to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 because, well, that's what you must do. Upgrade, in order to stay a step ahead of the hackers and spammers and evil virus whammers. Upgrades, I am told, mean better security. It's why I need Norton. It's why ships off the coast of Somalia need armed guards. It's why Tiger Woods needs a locking mechanism on his bedroom door that can't be opened with a sand wedge. Staples sent their ace techie out to in- stall the computer for me and it actually worked...for a while. The next day every- thing went black and I called "Ace" at Sta- ples and after some fairly intricate inves- tigative' work we determined that he had forgot to plug the computer into the wall socket. It had run on a battery for a day and then died. Everybody said because I live near open. water and so close to the United States that I needed to buy Rogers Rocket Stick. This I did and the difference was incred- ible. My monthly charge of forty bucks skyrocketed to $340 due to U.S. roaming fees on a cell phone I never use. But the computer was still not allowing me to see my e-mails. Then everybody said I needed an extension on my Rogers Rocket Stick to get it higher up on my office window in order to better attract a signal which I assume is being bounced off two Chinese satellites like a lead -lined ping-pong ball. And the Rocket won't be stretched by just any old extension cord. No, I needed a special USB adapter cost- ing $29.99 or approximately ten dollars per foot. That idiot on TV who dances and sings. "I am the cashman!" will sell me a repossessed gold chain for less than ten dollars a foot. Oh, and speaking of TV's, in the mid- dle of this high tech dog's breakfast I was forced to buy two digital converters for my TV sets in order to continue to bring in the three main American networks with my rotar antenna tower. And you know what? It worked. I can now get NBC, CBS and ABC quite well. Unfortunately I can no longer get Canadian TV stations without All the World's A Circus... disabling the digital connection. I also picked up some weird channel called Retro TV that runs episodes of "The A Team" twenty four hours a day and for a month now I've been walking around the house saying "I pity the fool!" At about the same time my un- derground telephone cable died so the Bell gtly installed a tem- porary cable that has that kind of loud, annoying hum on the line like the Mounties are using re- ally outdated wire tap equipment. .But I have to admit I like my new com- puter more than I liked the old one. The old one blocked every effort and ev- ery entry route I tried to get into my email page with a big, scary yellow sign that an- nounced: "The Server Cannot Be Found." This blocker appeared in big bold letters with a yellow border like the words were surrounded by police tape. It frightened me. I don't get any of that with my new com- puter. Although it still won't let me see my e-mails, now I get a very pleasant message that comes up with bright white letters on a sea -blue background and it says: "Inter- net Explorer Cannot Display This Page!" Cool, huh? I understand that Internet Explorer is try- ing, really trying to show me my e-mails but it simply cannot do it at this time. And it encourages me to try again. Which I do, almost every day when I get back from the Port Colborne Library where I receive and reply to all my e-mails in less than twenty minutes by using their computer. You see, I didn't actually need a new computer. I needed a faster car. I shouldn't say my new computer never works because yesterday as I was holding down the clicker on "googlegmail.com" up popped a recipe for spam confetti pasta with a preparation time of 30 minutes. Mine came out a tad dry, mind you, but now it's not as if I have. nothing to show for this one thousand dollar investment in state of the art technology. This morning things looked promising when I heard a noise, like a big deal an- nouncement sound — "Ta DAA! !" Then Norton informed me it was tracking eight cookies that had entered my programming system! So I requested that recipe.too. I have come to the conclusion that I live in a technological dead zone. Wainfleet is landline, lockdown territory, a place where scientific signals come to commit suicide. I' m diagonally parked in a parallel uni- verse and my time machine just blew the breaker box. Yesterday after tying up their telephone assistance staff for days on end, Rogers of- fered to send a technician to my house to fix my computer. I pity the fool.