I must begin this brief commentary on Technology by saying "I LOVE MY WIFE".  However, when it comes to technology she is an addict.  Every new gadget, widget and what you call it she has to have.  The only problem is she gets so inundated with the latest "Toy" that she has little to no time for the real meat of Real Estate.  I know this may sound somewhat antiquated to those of you who are in the now generation but you can have all the blogs, web presence, practice what the talking heads say is the "best business practice" hire your virtual assistance and still strike out in that one important area.  PRODUCTION!!!  Some of us forget that this is still a meet and greet industry:  Personal face time and presenting oneself as a knowledgeable professional.  A professional who is responsive and receptive to the needs of buyers or sellers while keeping yourself informed and current as related to the needs of the industry.

I say this because my wife has acquired another toy to distract her and I simply do not understand it:  Except in the context of "It's the newest and best thing out there".  The latest toy is a red Dell Inspiron Mini-10 Notebook.  Yes, it weighs 2 pounds, it connects with blazing speed to the net anywhere, and the key board is 92% of the standard laptop keyboard.  It has three USB connections, multiple slots for three different kinds of flash cards (for your camera); programs include Adobe photo shop.  In addition, here is the real biggie.... It comes with Microsoft works...WOW!  Oh and did I say it is a real pretty shade of red. 

But,  it doesn't come with a CD-R /DVD combo Drive, and it's sound can best be described as something akin to the sound one gets when stringing two tin cans together with cotton twine.  It comes with Microsoft Works.  Microsoft Works may work fine for the home maker however, for business use it is a poor substitute for Microsoft's Office Suite or Open Office .Now let's add to the mix the fact that right out of the box there where issues.  A few little things like the preinstalled Microsoft Works Suite was not installed.  The Reinstallation CD was there but hmm.... How do you get it to the HD.?  (That was accomplished by copying to a memory stick but that is another story).  Then there was the issue of the video setup from THE FACTORY.  Let me just say it took another lump of my time to correct.  All the time the tech happy wife of mine is impatiently awaiting her new toy.  Well all is well and it is set up but what is the purpose? 

You see, she also has a great Dell lap top that she can go anywhere, connect to the internet at lightning speed, it has an 18 inch screen, a standard sized keyboard, great speakers (internal), an internal CD-R/DVDR player/recorder, 4 USB Slots and a pair of flash card slots.  Software, well with a 240 gig hard drive , 2400 mgs of DRAM she can run her Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Photoshop, burn a CD while listening to net radio or conducting a web conference.  So can anyone explain to me why?

 Recently in attempting to describe the problem to another Broker, he informed me that he has several folks in his office either suffering from the same disorder, displaying the same addiction or who have fallen for the same sales pitch.  I for one tend to think of this issue as an addiction.  An addiction which really does nothing to change ones overall productivity picture:  A picture which still comes down to person to person, face to face and mouth to ear.  Without which nothing happens no matter how current you are in this tech happy world.