Ad - Wednesday, February 22, 1984 - North Shore News

FROM PAGE A1
filters used in air
conditioning.”’

Cooper added he was con-
cerned about the possible
moorage of boats in the
Fibreco area. ‘‘It’s a tidal
mud flat. At low, low tide it’s
mud,’’ he said. ‘‘The cost of
dredging that area would be
well over $1} million ... I’m
very much against this whole
proposal.’’

Allan Fowlis, President of
‘Seaspan International, cau-
tioned council that the pro-
posed boat moorage facility
may not be needed due to the
problems being experienced
by the fishing industry.

He also stated that the cur-
rent traffic surveys con-
ducted in the area are not ac-
curate since Seaspan is cur-
rently operating at only
‘*two-sevenths of our total
employment level. Parking
needs will not be met with
this proposal.’’

Gary Tyler, an employee at
Vancouver Shipyards, a sub-
sidiary of Seaspan Interna-
tional, told council the rail
crossing in the Pemberton
area already causes long
delays to vehicle traffic,
which led to shift changes at
Vancouver Shipyards.

He cited the numerous
times he has come out of
work to find paint on his car
from the shipyards, or saw-
dust from Fibreco, but added
he accepted this as ‘‘a condi-
tion of employment. But
would the ordinary public ac-

Industries

for wharf

‘cept it?’’ Tyler concluded by

saying he would support the
project if it was located in the
Lonsdale Quay area.

in his presentation to
council, Bysse said the
Pemberton Waterfront Deve-
lopment would be a smaller
version of the Granville
Market, intended to fuse the
area’s industrial and com-
mercial atmosphere with the
public’s needs and desires.

He said the project would
supply a boost to the local
economy, providing at least
300 jobs to young people on
the North Shore.

He added the project
would assist in the overall re-
juvenation of the Marine
Drive area and that ‘‘all con-
cerns have been or can be
resolved.’’

In separate cor-
respondence, the Port of
Vancouver stated it has con-
sidered the application but
feels it cannot support the
proposal in its present form.
No officials of B.C. Rail
were present at the public
hearing but a position paper
submittedtocouncil states the
corporation does not oppose
the proposal in principle.
(This ‘‘position paper’’ was
not on B.C. Rail letterhead
but on plain paper.)

Council reserved discus-
sion on the issue, pending
their consideration of the
correspondence and reports
submitted to and during the
public hearing. The proposal
was referred back to the
Policy and Planning Com-
mittee for discussion
February 27.

Watch out for
flying pianos

LOOK-UP in the sky! It’s a
bird! It’s a plane! It's — a
piano??

Be on the lookout for a fly-
ing grand piano near Eagle
Island off West Van over the
next two weeks. Council has
said yes to a request for per-
mission (O move, among
other things, a grand piano
by helicopter from a
residence on the island to the

1731 MARINE DR.

West Van mainland.

‘‘The operation must be
completed within one hour
total, and the helicopter must
take a route over water,’’
Council ruled.

The unusual request came
from Okanagan Helicopters
Lid. on behalf of the resi-
dent. The company will use a
Bell 206B Jetranger to per-
form the task.

ov

Strictly personal

by Bob Hunter

COMPUTER SALESMEN tend to be a breed

apart.

I’ve interfaced with quite a
number of them in the last
few months. And as a rule,
the best commentary is still
the clerk in the computer
store: ‘‘Do you have any
user-friendly sales reps?”’

As a rule, they are clean-
shaven, they wear ties, and
they speak calmly. Very
calmly. Sometimes madden-
ingly calmly.

After you’ve had your first
major screw-up with your
computer, this quality of in-

finite serenity on the part of’

the sales rep can GET to you.
‘*Are you sure you aban-
doned your modified buffers,
Bob?’’
**You’re positive there’s no

filter command in the
directory?”’

‘*‘Maybe it’s in the
microphazer.”’

“Okay, VU walk you

through again.”

Or, most irritating of all:
**Strange, never heard of that
happening before.”’

It took me a while to
realize why it was, in terms or
personality impact, that
when a computer salesperson
walks into a room it is often
as if they have just left.

I’m not being cruel,

honestly! It’s the old business
of set and setting. Just as
undertakers are quiet because
computer

SCOUTING
IS iN

their clients are

Bring this coupon in for one

week of free exercise to music
classes and babysitting.

FEB. 27 - MARCH 4

‘over 50 classes per week
G6:15AM—7:30PM

eopen 7 days a week mod-adv,

*bubysitting 8:00 & 10:00AM
Mon.-Fri, (to ensure space for
your child this week call in
nudvance )

926-8588

> The A
ROS

4

sales reps spend a lot of time
gathering and moving text
around in their heads, copy-
ing regions of data, giving
commands to the cursor of
their thoughts, as it were, and
preparing for query options.

When an actual customer
comes on stream, they go in-
to a down-linking mode.
That’s the nicest way | can
put it.

To a neophyte computer
buff, they do sound weird.
They emit an even flow of
words, a print-out rather
than a conversation. This is
definitely in sync with the
mood of a computer store.

1 am reminded of nothing
so much as a science-fiction
classic by A.E. Van Vogt,
titled The Weapon Shops of
Isher. it depicted a world
where ordinary citizens could
purchase high-tech means of
self-defence in a politically
corrupt system.

Buying a computer, it
seems to me, is a bit like buy-
ing a gun, especially in an era
of tax snoops, civilian spies
and costly accountancy. If
the bureaucrats are going to
keep fattening their files on
me, | figure I might as well
fatten my files on them.

If you accept the argument
that information has become
power in our society, and ac-
cess to information means ac-

CLOCKS|

Service & Repair
Grandfathers
Antiques
HOUSECALLS
REASONABLE
PRICES

271-9088

After 5:00 P.M.

Interfacing facts

cess to power, then when one
enters a computer store one is
laying one’s hands on a
device that has replaced the
Colt .45 as the great
equalizer.

One becomes a data
cowboy. How about the right
to bear computers? Is that
contained in the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms?

Notice, upon entering a
eomputer store, that you are
in something much like a
dead-sound zone. Maybe the
swish of shoes against the
carpet, the Deiphic
background tinkle of

keyboards. People speak in
the same inhibited tones they
use in a church or a bank.

SALE

Buy Now
Save

Stahiwille

HEY, NORTH

SHORE,
WE'RE ON YOUR SIDE!

TOOL LIQUIDATION

7 Days
a Week

New Discounts

Metric hand tools - 50% off
Metric precision tools - 50% off
Air tools - 50% oft

power tools:- 30% off

Quality Brand Names

Moore & Wright

Mitutoyo Hitachi Eclipse
Irwin Chicago-pneumatic Thor
Aro J.H. Williams Milwallkee

PACIFIC TOOL LIQUIDATORS

1140 CLARK DRIVE
VANCOUVER, B.C.

Open daily 9 am til! 5 pm
Thursday & Friday 9 am -9 pm
Saturdy 9 Sunday 9 am - 5 pm

Some computer salesmen,
I should point out, are ge-
nuine philosophers. Zenith’s
Peter MacDonald falls into
this category, .

The question he poses is
this: .

Supposing we command a
computer to go live on an
island. Supposing we in-
structed the computer to go
down to the beach every ten
years and make another com-
puter. Supposing a nuclear
warcame along and wiped out
all the people.

After umpteen years, the
island of the computers
would start to get overcrowd-
ed. Consider the situation the
computers would find
themselves in. They’d be
wandering around, scrat-
ching their heads, wondering
about the meaning of life,
but still driven to reproduce.

Sound familiar? 1 mean,
can you relate?

Let it be said that you had

_an interface that launched a

thousand chips. Happy
modes. And may your access
be total.

%

Walter-Metabo

i

NO-NAME. IS NOW OPEN ON LONGDALE.

| ose FREE FRAMES G4

REGARDLES

(WBIECT TO AVAILABIUTY
OPTIONAL EXTRAS ADDI

SOF POWER

DDYRONAL

We do not Fill Cataract prescriptions

NO-NAME @PTICAL

B.C’s MU,

MBER ONE EYEWEAR DYS COUNTER

i+ LONSDALE AVE..N.
EVE EXAMINATIONS ARRANGED